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ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN
SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

^c^L

BY

ROLLO LA VERNE LYMAN

Private Edition, Distributed By

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Reprinted from
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1921, No, 12

1922

tTbe TUntversttp of Cbicaao

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN
SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

BY

ROLLO LA VERNE LYMAN

Private Edition, Distributed By

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Reprinted from
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1921, No. 12

1922

EDU>:

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction 5

Chapter I. — Early instruction in the vernacular preceding English gram-
mar 11

1. Character of vernacular instruction in English, 1596-1622 12

2. Reasons for early emphasis on vernacular in America 15

3. Character of vernacular instruction in America, 1620-1720 17

Chapter II. — Early appearances of English grammar in America 21

1. Schools and schoolmasters teaching English grammar before 1775.... 21

2. English grammars in America before 1784 33

3. Early instruction in English grammar in American colleges 36

Chapter III. — Influences adding grammars to the curriculum: 43

1. Franklin's English school 43

2. The influence of the Philadelphia English school 49

3. Educational theories supporting grammar in America up to 1775.... 55
Chapter IV. — The rapid rise of grammar after 1775 70

1. The legislative recognition of grammar 70

2. The flood of textbooks after 1784 77

3. The extent of instruction in grammar in representative States,
1800-1850 82

4. The status of grammar, 1850 to 1870 92

Chapter V. — Traditional methods of teaching Latin grammar transferred

to English grammar. _ „ 103

1. Grammar as an art 105

2. Methods used in studying Lily, and Latin grammar in general,

seventeenth century _ 107

3. Latin methods carried directly to English grammar memorization.... Ill

4. Parsing 120

5. False syntax 122

6. Subordinate methods 124

7. Methods used by Hughes and Byerley 128

Chapter VI. — Gradual changes in method before 1850 132

1. The nature of the dominating textbooks, 1823-50 134

2. Other agents and agencies in the inductive approach 140

3. Chief features of the inductive movement applied to grammar 144

Appendix A. Chronological catalogue of English grammars in America

before 1800 155

Appendix B. A comparison of the English programs of Turnbull and

Franklin ' 158

List of authorities cited in this dissertation :

I. Primary sources 161

II. Secondary authorities 165

Index „„ 169

3

596488

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS
BEFORE 1850.

"A history of English grammar in the United States would afford some
amusement if a rational mind could derive any amusement from perusing a
record of abortive attempts to teach the correct use of language by every means
but actual practice in the art of speaking and writing it." — Wallis (W. B.
Fowle) (1850).

INTRODUCTION.

PRIMARY PURPOSES OF THE STUDY.

English grammar, as a formal subject, distinct from other branches
of instruction in the vernacular, made but sporadic appearances in the
American schools before 1775. After the Revolution its rise was
extremely rapid. English grammar gained momentum as the hold of
Latin grammar weakened, and by the end of the first quarter of the
nineteenth century it became so generally taught that the common
term grammar school, formerly applied to the secondary school of
the Latin-grammar type, was now by common consent used to desig-
nate an intermediate school with English grammar as its central
study. After 1825 the prominence of English grammar became
gradually more marked, until it reached its height about 1850-1875.
Then began a period of decline, continuing until the time of the Com-
mittee of Fifteen, which made its report in 1895.1

The past 25 years have seen a revival of attention to grammar, but
of a very much saner type than before. No other study in the cur-
riculum has had a more spectacular rise and a more dramatic fall.
Moreover, concerning no other study to-day are educators more in
doubt.2

The first purpose of this study is to trace the course of this rise and
fall, with the changing educational ideals and theories accompanying
it ; to analyze the causes of the varied changes of the subject, and to
determine when, where, why, and by wThom the successive modifica-
tions were inaugurated and carried out prior to 1850.

1 Rept. Com. Fifteen, Jour. Tree, N. E. A., 1895, p. 232. For recommendations concern-
ing grammar see Rept. Com. Fifteen, Educational Review, IX, 234-41.

2 The National Council of Teachers of English on Nov. 27, 1915, in Chicago, appointed a
committee to consider and recommend a suitable treatment in the schools of formal
grammar.

5

6 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

The second purpose* of this dissertation is to arrange systematically
these varying methods used from 1750 to 1850 and to show how they
are interrelated both with the shifting conceptions of the nature
and purpose of grammar and with the place given the study in the
curriculum.

No effort seems to have been made to develop these two important
aspects of English grammar with historical accuracy. Indeed, trea-
tises on the general curriculum, in their infrequent references to this
particular branch of the vernacular, are filled with inaccurate state-
ments of fact and with misleading generalizations, particularly in
regard to the early periods.3 Only one who has had to deal with such
inaccuracies can realize how difficult it is to ascertain the truth con-
cerning English grammar. It is therefore with due reservations
that the writer states, as his third purpose, an effort to establish with
concrete data a basis of reliable facts, especially in the vague period
of English grammar before the American Revolution.

A fourth purpose which this study has been compelled to consider
incidentally is to show how grammar was interrelated with declama-
tion, oratory, composition, and literature, as these five branches of
instruction in the mother tongue of a higher order than reading,
writing, and spelling gradually made their way into the program of
American schools.

SOURCES.

This investigation rests primarily upon an intensive examination
of early English grammars, with special attention to those in use
from 1750 to 1850. The date 1750 has been determined upon as most
suitable to mark the beginnings of instruction in formal English
grammar in America.4

The grammars, then, of the eighteenth century, many of which
passed through several editions both in England and America, were

8 Three examples of such errors will suffice to illustrate. One writer affirms : " English
Grammar was there (in Caleb Bingham's school, 1790) taught for the first time in
Boston." W. B. Fowle, English Grammar, C. S. J., XII (1850), 72. Here is an error of
at least 23 years (see Ch. II, p. 23, which has been widely accepted as stating the truth.
Again, Noah Webster affirmed that " no English grammar was generally taught in com-
mon schools when I was young." (1770. Am. J. of Ed., XIII, 124. Letter to Henry
Barnard, dated 1840.) This, coming from the author of at least the fifth American gram-
mar (see Chap. II) (not the first, as commonly believed), has been largely influential
in misinforming later writers upon the curriculum. Again, so careful a writer as Reeder
asserts, concerning Noah Webster's " Grammatical Institutes of the English Language,"
" these books [a speller, grammar, and reader, 1783-1785] were the first works of the kind
published in the United States. They were gradually introduced into most of the schools
of the country." Reeder, Hist. Dev. of Sch. Readers, etc., 30. On the contrary, Webster"s
grammar was not the first American grammar, and it enjoyed neither a long nor an exten-
sive use as a textbook. W. B. Fowle, op. cit., 74 and 203. Reeder's statement is accurate
concerning the speller and the reader, but it is quite erroneous concerning Part. II of
Webster's series.

4 See Chap. II, p. 33.

INTRODUCTION". 7

largely influential in determining school practices of the day. Book
learning in the eighteenth century had an even more literal significance
than it has to-day in many an ill-conducted classroom. "As the text-
book, so the study " is a comparatively safe assumption.

So, too, for primary evidence as to the changes in methods of
instruction, beginning about 1823, the writer has turned to the lead-
ing texts of the various periods. For example, this dissertation
points out that 1850 was the central turning point in the history of
methods in grammar.5 Greene's "Analysis " of 1847 was the culmi-
nation of various influences breaking away from the older concep-
tions and the forerunner of numerous other textbooks of the next 25
years. Likewise Swinton's Language Lessons, of 1873, came as the
result of scattered agitation and efforts of the previous quarter
century, and in their wide adoption Swinton's Lessons fastened upon
the schools the new idea of grammar as incidental to exercises in
writing and speaking. And, of a more recent period, Swett's Gram-
mar, with its imitators, has given the still newer turn of incidental
study to the subject of formal grammar.

In addition to the textbooks themselves the educational writings of
authors contemporary with the various periods have thrown consid-
erable light upon various advances made in classroom methods. To
be sure, a commentator like Comenius, Hoole, Brinsley, Locke, Frank-
lin, or Mann is usually, in his theory, more or less in advance of his
time, and the reforms he advocates are indicative of methods which
do not become general for a considerable period after his advocacy of
them.6

In addition, the writer is indebted to Dr. Marcus W. Jernegan^ of
the University of Chicago, for generous advice and assistance, and
especially for permission to use his voluminous data on private
schools taken from colonial newspapers. This material has been of
invaluable aid, especially in indicating many of the private schools
of the eighteenth century whose schoolmasters were pioneers in
adding English grammar to their curricula.

~See Chap. VI, p. 133.

6 For example, in 1786 Benjamin Rush, of Pennsylvania, advocated, concerning the
teaching of English grammar, principles which even in 1920 are very far from being
accomplished.

" Let the first eight years of a boy's time be employed in learning to speak, spell, read,
and write the English language. For this purpose, let him be committed to the care of a
master who speaks correctly at all times, and let the' books he reads be written in a simple
but correct style. During these years let not an English grammar by any means be put
into his hands. It is to most boys under 12 years of age an unintelligible book. As well
might we contend that a boy should be taught the names and number of the humors of
the eye or the muscles of the tongue, in order to learn to see or to speak, as be taught the
English language by means of grammar. Sancho Panza in attempting to learn to read by
chewing the four and twenty letters of the alphabet did not exhibit a greater absurdity
than a boy of seven or eight years old does in committing grammar rules to memory in
order to understand the English language." Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 234.
" Between his fourteenth and eighteenth years he should be instructed in grammar,
oratory," etc. Ibid., 255.

8 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

The history of the actual teaching of English grammar is quite
different from a history of the theories of teaching grammar.
Throughout this study the author has endeavored to keep strictly to
the former point of view— that is, to keep a firm hold upon the actual
classroom practices of successive periods. Evidence of an extensive
sale of textbooks, for example, is taken as reliable proof as to what
constituted the subject matter of schoolroom activities.

More reliable, however, than textbooks or educational writings for
determining the exact status of English grammar at any definite
period are statutes, curricula, and school reports. Wherever it has
been possible, these sources have been utilized to determine how far
school practices in any period conformed to the theories of the best
educational writers and embodied the innovations of the most pro-
gressive textbooks. Incidental to these, information has been derived
from town histories, reports of educational commissions, early jour-
nals of education, and such other information as may be found in
miscellaneous sources, like newspaper advertisements, reminiscences,
lives of schoolmasters, and histories of individual institutions.

THE BEGINNINGS OF GRAMMAR, NOT OF THE VERNACULAR

INSTRUCTION.

This study has to deal primarily with English grammar in Ameri-
can schools. Main interest therefore centers upon the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Indeed, the year 1750, the date of the first
important vernacular school in America to center its instruction
around English grammar, is about 200 years too late at which to
begin the study of the development of this branch of teaching. But
the important fact to bear in mind is that this is a study of English
grammar, not of the vernacular. Moreover, it is a study of English
grammar in America, not in England. Therefore its treatment
plunges in medias res and touches upon the vernacular before the
eighteenth century and upon grammar in England only as demanded
by the course of the subject in America and as directly inherited from
England in theories, textbooks, and schoolroom practices.

BEARING ON MODERN PROBLEMS.

It has apparently been the fate of new branches in vernacular
instruction, once introduced into American schools, to be carried to
excess. Perhaps this is not true of reading and writing; but of the
newer branches, spelling, which began correctly as an incidental
study, became a craze in the first quarter of the nineteenth century
and came to occupy an undue proportion of attention. Elaborate
school instruction was supplemented by evening spelling schools and
spelling matches. Webster's blue-backed speller enjoyed a sale

INTRODUCTION. 9

unrivaled in our school annals.7 Fifty years after the dominance of
spelling English grammar rose to its height, occupying, from 1850
to 1875, three to seven years of the secondary schools and, in addition,
a prominent place in the high schools. After 1875, with the sub-
sidence of grammar to its correct place as an incidental study, com-
position gained in strength, and, together with literature carefully
prescribed by college entrance requirements, to-day monopolizes one-
fourth of the high-school curriculum, while formal language lessons
predominate in the elementary school.

The history of spelling and of grammar suggests that 50 years
hence educators will be saying that in the two decades from 1900 to
1920 the school had not yet discovered that language habits are not
most advantageously acquired in formal composition ; that literature
is a present reality, with living poets and prose writers, rather than a
dusty contribution from masters who lived centuries ago. The his-
torian of the future may smile at the excess of oral composition when
carried into elaborate State declamatory contests. Indeed, in the light
of the past one argument for increasing the time given to formal classes
in the vernacular is at least questionable. If children can not spell,
we are urged, give them more classes in spelling; if they are gram-
matically inaccurate, give them more grammar ; if they can not write,
give them more classes in composition ; if they can not appreciate the
pale heroes of King Arthur's court, give them Milton's minor poems
and Carlyle's Essay on Burns. The very questionable logic of this
argument led to excess in the time devoted to spelling and to gram-
mar, and it has been a powerful factor in advancing composition and
literature to their present status.

There can be little doubt that the period 1900 to 1920 is the heyday
of formal composition and of the classics in the English curriculum,
just as the date 1825 was the heyday of spelling and that of 1860 the
heyday of grammar. And still the cry is that English departments
are failures and their product exceedingly imperfect, and English
teachers are demanding ever larger appropriations. English is more
fortunate than its sister studies in being able to have the value of its
product weighed every day in the practical life of its graduates.
English welcomes criticism of its deficiency. English is experi-
menting with conversation lessons, with present-day literature ; Eng-
lish is begging other departments to cooperate in establishing correct
language habits: English is endeavoring to put oral composition on
a sensible basis. Here and there a daring reformer is advocating less
time for formal classes in English, their place to be taken by more
general and uniform guidance in language habits. Here and there

7 " It is computed that more than 80,000,000 copies of this spelling book were sold before
1880." Evans Am. Bibl.; 6, 263.

10 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

school officials are even rejecting for other departments teachers whose
English is slovenly, just as they reject candidates whose appearance is
careless and uncleanly.

History in the teaching of the mother tongue is being made to-day.
Therefore the writer feels that any light which may be thrown upon
the history of any one branch of English instruction from its very
beginning in America may assist modern reformers in securing a
better perspective as they advance to more important innovations.
The heart of the newer movements in the vernacular is well expressed
by Sir Oliver Lodge : " Language should be learned in a pupil's
stride — not by years of painful application." This sentiment, more-
over, is the direct opposite of the spirit and aims of instruction in
formal grammar in America up to 1850.

Chapter I.

EARLY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERNACULAR PRECEDING
ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

The history of the educational changes by which instruction in the
English vernacular has been grafted upon the classical instruction of
the sixteenth century involves two distinct movements. The first
occurred after the Reformation; it was led by Comenius, Brinsley,
Hoole, and others ; it resulted in the addition of reading, writing, and
spelling in the mother tongue to the curriculum of elementary schools
and to the lower classes of grammar schools.8 The second movement
may be said to have begun in 1693 with John Locke and his immediate
followers ; it resulted in the addition of English grammar, composi-
tion, both oral and written, and literature to the curriculum of inter-
mediate schools and colleges.9

While it is true that these two movements, corresponding roughly
to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively, were closely
related, they were also quite distinct and involve two different con-
ceptions of education. The seventeenth-century reform demanded the
vernacular for two reasons: First, as a necessary preliminary for
boys who were to continue their education in the classics; second, as
suitable instruction for the masses, not destined for higher schools,
but needing to read the Bible in the vernacular, according to the
spirit of the Reformation.

The important consideration is that the seventeenth-century reform
still regarded education in the classics as of highest worth. On the
contrary, the eighteenth-century reform began where the former left
off. It found the elementary branches of the vernacular established
as the preliminaries of classical instruction. John Locke headed the
revolt against the Latin curriculum as the sole content of secondary
education. He and. his followers insisted that the mother tongue
itself is better suited than Latin to serve at once as the end and the
vehicle of secondary education. They placed English in the cur-
riculum not as preliminary to but as a substitute for the Latin tongue.10
It was through this eighteenth-century movement that English gram-

8 See Watson, Beginnings of Mod. Subj., 20, for excellent discussion of this earlier
movement.

• See Chap. Ill, p. 55. 10 Full discussion in Chap. Ill, p. 55.

11

12 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

mar, composition, and literature entered the curriculum and bega:
the course which has brought them to the dignified place they occupy
to-day.

It is obvious that a study which seeks to trace the entrance of
English grammar into American pedagogy has to deal primarily
with the eighteenth-century reform. In other words, the point of
departure in this dissertation may be said to be 1693, the date of John
Locke's Thoughts on Education. The first movement for the ver-
nacular, with its causes and results, is postulated as having been com-
pleted, and the later reform of the eighteenth century begun, by that
date.

This thesis shows that English grammar was introduced primarily
as the core study of a secondary school curriculum of the English
rather than of the Latin type; that the traditions of Latin gram-
mar as the heart of grammar-school instruction pointed at first posi-
tively and directly to English grammar as the core of an English
program of equal rank with the Latin grammar program. In other
words, this dissertation is the story of the process by which the
dreary grind of Latin grammar was supplanted, for the great
majority of American school children, by the almost equally futile
grind of English grammar.

Although we have selected 1693 as the starting point of our discus-
sion, let us now examine briefly the character of the vernacular
instruction in England and America from 1620 to the end of the
seventeenth century. This is done merely to establish a suitable
background for the entrance of English grammar. It is a glance at
what vernacular instruction was just before grammar appeared in
America.

1. CHARACTER OF VERNACULAR INSTRUCTION IN ENGLAND,

1596-1622.

In 1596 Edmund Coote published in London his famous vernacular
textbook for " pettie " schools. The title indicates its nature : " The
English School Master, Teaching all his Scholars, of what age
soever, the most easy, short, and perfect order of distinct Reading,
and true Writing our English-tongue. * * * " 1X Brinsley and
Hoole, leading school writers of their day — 1600-1650 — both speak of
Coote's School Master, 1596, as a popular text for elementary
schools.12 Before 1656 the book had passed through 26 editions,
proof enough of its popularity.13

An examination of the contents of this text enables one' to see early
seventeenth-century vernacular instruction in England. Thirty-two

"Barnard, Am J. of Ed., I (1856), 309.

"Brinsley, Ludus Literaris, 18. Hoole, New Discovery, 43.

18 Watson, Grammar Schools, 177.

EARLY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERNACULAR. 13

pages are given to instruction in the alphabet and spelling ; about 18
pages to the catechism, prayers, and psalms ; five pages to chronology ;
two to writing copies; two to arithmetic; the remainder to lists of
hard words " sensibly explained." The child using this book first
learned his letters, then short syllables, next longer ones, then reading
by the word method, with spelling incidental to both alphabet and
reading. Writing was insignificant.1*

Brinsley's course in the " pettie " school consisted of studies in this
order: The alphabet, the ABC (including spelling) taught by the
use of Coote's School Master, the primer " twice thro," The Psalms
in Meter, The Testament, and the " Schoole of Vertue," together with
" The Schoole of good manners." 15

A complete description of vernacular instruction at the end of the
sixteenth century is given by Charles Hoole. In 1659 Hoole pub-
lished "A New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching School," having
been written 23 years before.16 Hoole, to be sure, was mainly inter-
ested in the Latin school, but he also prescribes a " petty schoole " for
children between the ages of 4 and 8. Hoole was a practical school
man, head master of the Rotherdam Grammar School in Yorkshire,
and principal of a private school in London.17

Hoole based his discussion of methods upon the following arrange-
ment:

1. Preparatory lessons in vocalization before learning the letters.

2. Learning the alphabet with the hornbook.

3. Proceeding from syllables of two letters, various vowels with
each consonant, using dice, pictures, charts. In his primer Hoole
gives a picture with the letters. " I have published a New Primar.
In the first leafe whereof I have set Roman Capitalls . . . and have
joyned therewith the pictures or images of some things whose names
begins (Hoole's grammar is imperfect) with that letter, by which a
childs memory may be helped, ... as A for an Ape, B for a
Bear, etc."

4. Teaching the child to spell distinctly; pronounce the vowels
alone ; teaching the force of the consonants ; syllables of one consonant
before a vowel ; teaching the diphthongs ; then begin spelling of words
(learning six rules of spelling).

14 Watson, 177. It is worth noting that English grammar made its way into America
chiefly through Dilworth's " New Guide to the English Tongue," 1740. which was a reader,
speller, and grammar combined. A composite textbook was popular when books were
scarce. Coote's composite book was an early prototype of such texts, of which Dilworth
was the most widely used in America. (See Ch. II, p. 33.)

15 Brinsley, 14-18. Tbe title of this book is " The Schools of Vertue and booke of good
Nourture for cbyldren and youth to learne theyr dutie by," by Francis Seager (earliest
edition 1557; one as late as 1677). Reprinted, Early English Text Society, The Babees
Book, 332-55.

"Reprinted in Am. J. of Ed., XVII (1864), 195, 225, 293; more recently by C. W.
Bardeen.

17 " The Petty Schoole " was printed in Paul's Church Yard in 1659. Bardeen's reprint,
27 (title page).

14 ENGLISH GRAMMAK IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

5. Teaching him to read any English book perfectly.

The ordinary way to teach children to read is, after they have got some knowl-
edge of their letters and a smattering of some syllables and words in the horn-
book, to turn them into the A B C or Primar, and therein* to make them name
the letters, and spell the words, till by often use they can pronounce (at least)
the shortest words at first sight.

For these books Hoole substitutes the Lord's Prayer, the Creed,
and the Ten Commandments printed in Roman capitals. He would
have the child pronounce the words he can at first sight and " What
he can not, to spell them, and to go them often over, till he can tell
any tittle in them either in or without the book."

Then Hoole adds reading over " Psalms, Thankesgivings, and
Prayers . . . till he have them pretty well by heart." Textbooks
are " The Psalter, The Psalms in Meeter, The Schoole of good man-
ners, ... or such like easy books " ; then the Bible, beginning with
Genesis. Finally have him " take liberty to exercise himself in any
English, book." When " he can perfectly read in any place of a book
that is oifered him ... I adjudge him fit to enter into a Grammar
Schoole, but not before. . . . For thus learning to read English per-
fectly I allow two or three years time, so that at seven or eight years
of age a child may begin Latine." 18

What the curriculum of the average charity school of England was
about 1700 may be seen in an account of the Charity Schools of
Great Britain and Ireland. Orders which were in effect in many
schools were as follows :

Pronunciation: The Master Shall make it his chief Business to Instruct the
Children ... in the Church Catechism ; which he shall first teach them to
pronounce distinctly and plainly.

Spelling: The Master shall teach them the true spelling of Words and Distinc-
tion of Syllables, with the Points and Stops, which is necessary to true and
good Reading.

Reading: As soon as the Boys can Read completely well, the Master shall

Writing: teach them to Write a fair legible Hand.

There is presented an account of 100 such schools (1710), with
2,480 boys and 1,381 girls, which had been set up during the preceding
14 years. A common stipulation in many gifts for these schools runs
" for teaching them to Read, Write, Cast Account, and Work, and
for instructing them to the knowledge of the Christian Religion." 19

On the basis of this examination of Coote, Brinsley, and Hoole we
are able to see the nature of vernacular instruction in England in the
better " petty " schools from 1569 and continuing until the eighteenth

18 Bardeen, op. cit., 31-53.

Hoole adds a chapter to his " Petty Schoole " in which he points out how children for
whom Latin is thought unnecessary may be employed after they have learned English.
Ibid., 54.

19An account of the Charity Schools of Great Britain and Ireland, 9th ed., 1710, 3-15.

EARLY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERNACULAR. 15

century. If Hoole is correct, " the A. B. C. being now (I may say)
generally thrown aside, and the ordinary Primar not printed," 20 the
use of these two famous educational instruments was diminishing,
together with the hornbook.21

We may sum up the English practice at the time the first American
colonies were established by saying that vernacular instruction con-
sisted of elementary reading, spelling, and writing; that it retained
an intensely religious purpose, involving ability to read the Bible;
that it was regarded as preliminary to the study of Latin. We shall
see that these characteristics were transferred bodily to the first
elementary schools of America.

2. REASONS FOR EARLY EMPHASIS ON VERNACULAR IN AMERICA.

Two major reasons led the English colonists to stress the mother
tongue in elementary instruction. As is customary, our consideration
begins with the Puritan colony of Massachusetts, the character of the
first settlers, their purpose in coming to America, and their major
interests in the new land. Only eight years after the settlement of
Massachusetts Bay that Colony established a college in Cambridge.
Harvard was founded in 1636.22 This highly significant act was due
to the fact that a large proportion of the first settlers were thoroughly
acquainted with the higher education and educational institutions of
the mother country.23 By 1650, within New England, there had set-
tled at least 90 men, ministers, the leaders of Massachusetts Bay, most
of whom were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. Three-fourths
of these were from Cambridge, the hotbed of revolt against Laud and
established religious authority. They had been students there between
the years 1600 and 1650, contemporaries of Robinson, Cromwell, and
Milton. Of this number were John Cotton, John Ward, John Har-
vard, John Winthrop, Henry Dunster, and many others, not all
clergymen. By 1650 the immigration into New England had reached
20,000 of pure English stock, and it is estimated that there was one
person of higher education for every 40 families. The proportion
for Massachusetts Bay was even larger than the general average for
New England. This unusually large proportion of educated men
were leaders of groups of immigrants, some of whom had themselves
been landed proprietors in England and had enjoyed at least an ele-
mentary education in the grammar schools of the mother country.24

It was among such a people, whose actions were directed by such
leaders, that an early movement for education might be expected.
The colleges and the grammar schools first established were, of course,

20 Bardeen, op. cit., 50.

31 The standard work is Tuer, History of the Horn Book.
82 Rec. Co. Mass. Bay, I, 183.

n F. B Dexter, Influences of the English Universities in the Development of New
England, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1879-1880, 340 et seq.

24 See M. W. Jernegan, The Beginnings of Pub. Ed. in N. E., Sch. Rev., XXIII, 326.

16 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

classical. They were in response to the ideal of the leaders that the
State was responsible for the education of the most promising youth
in order to perpetuate an educated leadership. Colleges were to train
leaders, and as the college curriculum was entirely made up of classi-
cal studies, classical grammar schools were necessary to prepare boys
for college.

But the colonists of Massachusetts were actuated by another ideal
which grew out of their intensely religious nature and was the very
heart of the Protestant movement the world over. This idea, ardent
champions of which were Luther and Erasmus, was that the mass of
the people should be able to go directly to the fountain head of all
religious authority — the Bible itself.25 To this end the Holy Word
was brought out of the Latin into the vernacular and the people
taught to read. Not all the people were to be educated in grammar
school and college ; that was reserved for the few destined to become
leaders. But the rank and file of the people themselves must be able
at least to read the Bible. In Germany, England, and America this
ideal wTas the primary moving force which led to the introduction of
universal instruction in the mother tongue.

We have, then, in the desire for educated leadership and in the
desire for universal acquaintance with the Scriptures two impelling
forces which actuated Puritan New England in her first educational
endeavors.26

Evidence on this point may be found in the first two general laws
concerning education passed by the General Court of Massachusetts
Bay. The act of 1642 ordered selectmen to take account of children,
" especiallity of their ability to read & undestand the principles of
religion and the capital lawes of the country." 27 Even more strongly
suggestive is the language of the law of 1647, which made compulsory
both elementary and secondary education : " It being one chiefe piect
(point) of y* ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men from the knowledge
of ye Scriptures, as in formr times, by keeping ym in an unknowne
tongue."28 This is the expression of the second ideal — that the
Scriptures, in the known tongue, are to be accessible to all. " So in
these lattr times, by pswading from ye use of tongues, yl so at last ye

25 Luther translated the Testament in 1522 ; the entire Bible in 1534. Monroe, Cyc. of
Ed., 4, 94.

28 Probably none of the other causes designated by Watson for the seventeenth-century
movement for the vernacular in England were operative in America. Watson assigns, first,
the growth of a national spirit after the Armada ; second, the fact that England took more
pride in her national independence of thought, and especially sought to give all people the
ability to read the Scriptures ; third, the feeling that, as the French tongue now contained
the subject matter which had formerly been confined to the Latin, English might also be
so utilized ; fourth, the newly acquired literary possession in Spencer, Shakespeare, and
Milton ; and, finally, the increase of textbooks in English, beginning with the authorized
prints of 1545, until " by the second half of the seventeenth century every important
department of knowledge had been expounded in an English textbook." Watson, op. cit.,
531-5.

a7Rec. Co. Mass. Bay, II, 9. » Ibid., 203.

EARLY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERNACULAR. 17

true sence & meaning of ye originall might be clouded by false
glosses of saint seeming deceivers." 29 Here is the expression of the
ideal for leadership educated in Latin and Greek. Elementary edu-
cation in the vernacular and secondary and higher education in the
classics were provided for by colony law in Massachusetts Bay in
1G4T, only 19 years after the original settlement. As we have seen,
the ideals and motives were primarily religious. We are safe in say-
ing not only that the American colonists inherited from England the
grammar school and the college, but that they endeavored to go beyond
the mother country in teaching the vernacular. Vernacular instruc-
tion is indissolubly associated with the Reformation, out of which
the first New England colonies sprang, #

3. CHARACTER OF VERNACULAR INSTRUCTION IN AMERICA,

1620-1720.

Colonial laws of the seventeenth century indicate that vernacular
instruction consisted primarily of reading and secondarily of writing.
In Massachusetts Bay the law of 1642 prescribed " ability to read &
undestand the principles of religion ;" 80 the law of 1647 " to write
and read " ; 31 that of 1683 " to wrighting schooles ... in towns of
five hundred families." 32 Reading and writing were similarly the
content of vernacular education in Connecticut,33 in New Haven,34 in
New York,35 in New Hampshire,36 in Pennsylvania,37 in Maryland,38
and in South Carolina.39

That reading and writing were the two branches of the vernacular
at first stressed in colonial schools is further borne out by examining
the practice of various towns. In 1693, Dorchester, Mass., ordered
a sum to be paid to Thomas Waterhouse, who " is bound to teach to
read it shalbe left to his liberty in that poynt of teaching to write,
only to doe what he can conveniently therein." 40 Governor Winthrop,
under date of 1645, writes : " Divers free schools were erected in Rox-
bury . . . and in Boston . . . teach to read and write and cipher. . . .
Other towns did the like." 41 Moreover, after the general colony

29 Ibid. The early colony law of Connecticut, 1650. also indicates as a primary purpose
of education, teaching children to read the Scriptures. Col. Rec. Conn., I, 555.

30 Rec. Co. Mass. Bay, II, 9.

31 Ibid., 203.

32 Ibid., V, 414.
88 Col. Rec. Conn., I. 521.
34 New Haven Col. Rec. (1653), 65, 583.
36 Ann. of Albany, IV, 15, 16.
88Bouton, Prov. Papers of N. H., Ill (1692-1722), 718.

87 Clews, op. cit, 281 and Pa. Col. Rec, I, 91.

88 Steiner, Hist, of Ed. in Maryland, 19 ; and Clews, op. cit., 416,

89 Ibid., 457.

40 Orcott, Nar. Hist. Good Old Dorchester, 292.

41 Winthrop, Hist, of N. E., Savage, II, 264.

60258°— 22 2

18 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

laws of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut prescribed reading and
writing, in 1647 and 1650, respectively, towns began to comply. For
example, in Watertown, 1650, " Norcroffe was Chosen Schoole Master,
for the teaching of Children to Reed to write & soe much of Lattin
as . . . allso y* teace such as desire to Cast accompt." 42 Records
indicate that other towns employed teachers to teach reading and
writing.43 It appears, therefore, that the English teaching of this
period was exceedingly elementary. Reading was common in all
schools ; writing was considered worthy of more advanced teaching in
some towns, but usually accompanied reading, taught by the same
master; casting accounts and arithmetic began to appear toward the
end of the century and were usually classed with the English branches.
In addition to the public schools so far considered, there were many
private schools, in one order of which — the " dame " schools — 44
primary instruction in the mother tongue was the acknowledged
purpose. For example, in Maiden, Mass., Rebecca Parker kept such
a school for several years.45 Salem voted £15 to " Widow Catherine
Dealland," in 1712, for teaching school among them.46 One other
typical example will suffice. In Hartford, Conn.,

there were in those times private schools of a lower grade. At least one such
school was kept in Hartford, that of Widow Betts, " Goody Betts, the School
Dame," who died in 1647. Her pupils-were young children, whom she taught the
simple lessons of the hornbook.47

In short, Judd, in his history of Hadley, sums up the general
practice when he says:

There were many cheap private schools ... in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, kept by " dames "... where girls were instructed to read and sew,
and in some small boys were*, taught to read .... Writing was considered far
less important .... Probably not one woman in a dozen could write her
name 150 years ago.*8

The instruction in these dame schools, which persisted well down
into the nineteenth century,49 consisted of the simplest elements of
the vernacular. The textbooks have been described so often that a
mere mention here will suffice. Books chiefly employed were the
A B C,50 the Horn Book,51 the New England Primer,52 the Bible,53

42 Watertown Rec, I, 21.

43 Rec. Town of Dedham, III, 213; ibid., IV, 3; Rec. Town Plymouth, I, 116; Currier,
Hist. Newbury, 396 (quotes town record) ; Nash, Hist. Sketch Weymouth, 126; Corey, Hist.
Maiden, 603 ; Felt, op. cit, 439 ; Bailey, Hist. Andover, 519 ; Bicknell, Hist. Barrington, 524.

44 See discussion in Updegraff, Orig. Mov. Sch. in Mass., 136-49.

45 Corey, op. cit., 439.

46 Felt, op. cit., 1, 442 ; see also ibid., 445, 9, 50.

47 Love, Col. Hist. Hartford, 254.

48 Judd, Hist, of Hadley. 56.

"They continued in Boston at least until 1819, when free primary schools were estab-
lished. W. B. Fowle, Barnard, Ed. Biog.. 129.
60 See Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, 211.

81 Tuer, History of Horn Book.

82 Ford, The New England Primer.

83 Felt, Annals of Salem, I, 437.

EARLY INSTRUCTION IN THE VERNACULAR. 19

Catechisms,54 and the Psalters.85 We find, then, that before the
appearance of the higher branches of the mother tongue the colonies
had provided instruction generalty in reading and writing. At first
there was little spelling as such, what there was being incidental to
reading. Spelling is the logical outcome of the ABC method of
learning to read, proceeding from the individual letters to syllables
of two letters, then to easy words, and so forward. Littlefield refers
to spelling books printed by Stephen Day, in Cambridge, Mass., as
early as 1645,56 and asserts that Coote's School Master was extensively
used in New England.57 Other spellers intervened, but not until 1740
and after, when " Dilworth's New Guide to the English Tongue " was
published in London, imported, and reprinted in America in enor-
mous quantities,58 could formal exercises in spelling be said to have
become universal.

The first book printed in America which attained wide popularity
was the New England Primer, which was first published in the
decade 1680-1 690.59 Ford estimates the total sale of this book at
3,000,000 copies between 1690 and 1840. One firm, Franklin & Hall,
of Philadelphia, sold 37,000 copies between 1749 and 1766.60 But the
wide sale of the New England Primer did not begin until after 1690 ;
before that time the colony schools had to depend very largely upon
books imported from England. Bibles 61 were the universal reading
books in the early American schools, convenient textbooks because
they were found in . almost every home, logical textbooks because
knowledge of religion was legally prescribed. For the very earliest
instruction in the dame schools, ABC books, hornbooks, and psalters
preceded the Testament and Bible. In short, the procedure described
by John Locke — " the ordinary road of the Horn Book, Primer,

" Littlefield, Sch. and Sch. Books, 105.

65 An excellent description of the Primer, the Horn Book, and the Psalter as used in the
schools of Salem before 1791 is found in Felt, op. cit., T, 436-7. Isaac Parker, who was one
of Dame Rebecca Parker's pupils in Maiden, 1786, said that the only book he had was a
Psalter, and that he had only a little reading and spelling. Corey, op. cit., 648.

"Littlefield, op. cit., 118.

"Ibid., 119.

68 See Chap. II, p. 34.

89 Paul Leicester Ford, the historian of the New England Primer, attributed the first
edition to Benjamin Harris, printer, between the years 1687-1690, the exact date unknown.
Ford, op. cit., 16. Worthington C. Ford has recently found evidence of an earlier New
England Primer printed by John Gaine. London, entered in the Stationers Register, under
date Oct. 5, 1683. The Nation, Jan. 11, 1917, 46.

60 P. L. Ford, op. cit., 19.

« " The Bible and Psalter and the New England Primer were the only reading books "
(before 1770). Burton, Hist, of Ed. in N. H., 1842, 585. The Bible was used for the
senior class, John Tbelwell's school, Wilmington. Del., before 1775. Powell, Hist, of Ed.
in Del., 42. " Bible and Catechism for more than a century after settlement of Newbury
were the only reading books used in school." (1634-1734.) Carrier, Hist. Newbury, 408.

20 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Psalter, Testament, and Bible " — was the common practice 82 in
America, as in England. Many towns prescribed for their schools
Latin masters and either ushers or English masters, together with
writing masters or scribes.63 The town school received pupils after
they had learned the first elements in dame schools, and, in the
absence of the latter, themselves gave elementary instruction in read-
ing, writing, and casting accounts. Such a school, for example, was
set up in Hartford, Conn., in 1755. " This society judge necessary
that Exclusive of the Grammar School there be . . . two other schools
sett up and supported for an English Education only . . . for Read-
ing, Writing and Arithmetic." 64

Naturally we should not expect to find grammar and composition
as distinct studies in this early period, when instruction in the ver-
nacular had for its primary purpose preparing children for the
grammar schools and for its secondary purpose teaching them to
read the Scriptures, with ability to write even more subordinated,
and spelling largely, if not entirely, incidental. How English gram-
mar was grafted upon these more elementary branches is the main
subject of the succeeding chapter. When the Latin-grammar school
was proved to be ill suited to the majority of pupils and when the
demand increased for a type of secondary education to supplant the
Latin, English grammar came naturally to the fore. Instruction in
vernacular grammar could be imparted by exactly the same methods
used in the teaching of Latin grammar. The passing of Latin gram-
mar is contemporaneous with the rise of vernacular grammar. The
older order — reading, writing, spelling, and Latin grammar — now
became reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, all in the
mother tongue. Such a procedure would bear out Eggleston's unsup-
ported assertion that " by slow degrees it came to pass that the Eng-
lish studies at last drove the sacred Latin from the free school founded
at first for it alone." 65

w Locke, Thoughts Cone. Education, Quick, 134. See excellent account of such books
used in Connecticut schools. " The early schoolbooks of New England were the same as
those of Old England. The same books . . . were used in Hadley and other towns. Such
books were sold by John Pynchon, of Springfield, from 1656 to 1672 and after, and by
Joseph Howley, of Northampton, to his scholars, except hornbooks, from 1674 to 1680, and
both sold many Catechisms ; . . . neither sold spelling books. . . . They were but
little used in the seventeenth century. Samuel Porter, of Hadley, who died in 1722,
sold Primers, Psalters, Testaments, and Bibles ; also Catechisms, Psalm Books, and Spelling
books, chiefly Dilworth's, were not common on the Connecticut River until after 1750."
Judd, op. cit., 61.

In 1805 H. K. Oliver was placed at 5 years of age in the Boston school of Mr. Hayslop.
" By him I was taught my A B C D E F, my ab, abs. and my eb, ebs." Later young Oliver
learned elementary reading and spelling in the school of Dame Tileson. Barnard's Am. J.
of Ed.. XXVI, 210.

63 Usher provided for John Douglas (1710), master of the grammar school in Charleston,
to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Clews, op. cit., 457.

Thomas Makin (Meakins) appears to have kept a " free school in the town of Phila-
delphia " (1693). Makln was afterwards the usher or assistant of George Keith, the first
teacher of the William Penn Charter School, 1687. Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 41-43.

•* Col. Rec, II. Love, Col. Hist. Hartford, I, 153.

«Eggleston, op. cit, 236.

Chapter II.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN

AMERICA.

In Chapter I has been discussed the background of vernacular
teaching in the American colonies, to which was added during the
eighteenth century the formal study of English grammar. The pres-
ent chapter will seek to establish the facts that a few schools attempted
English grammar as such before 1750; that between 1750 and 1760,
in the middle colonies at least, considerable headway in the subject
was made in private schools ; that after 1760 private schools of both
the northern and southern colonies fell into line ; that by 1775 English
grammar was taught with some frequency in many private schools
throughout the country.

1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR

BEFORE 1775.

In this section is gathered from various sources, especially from
newspaper advertisements,66 evidence of instruction in grammar
before 1775. This chapter demonstrates that Noah Webster's often-
quoted affirmation that " English grammar was not generally taught
in common schools " before the Revolution 67 has been misinterpreted.
Webster was right in saying that few common schools gave instruc-
tion in English grammar before 1775, but the inference usually drawn
from his statement that grammar was not taught at all is misleading.
The number of private schools which taught the subject increased
rapidly after 1750. Webster evidently was acquainted with the school
practices of the New England colonies, which are shown in this chap-
ter apparently to have lagged behind the middle colonies, and some-
what behind the southern, in bringing to the fore instruction in all
secondary branches of English, especially grammar.

In the New Jersey series the newspapers cited begin with 1704 and
end with 1779. Not all schools which were giving instruction in gram-
mar before the Revolution are here indicated. Colonial newspapers

68 Much of the data from colonial newspapers on private schools cited in this section was
made available through the courtesy of Prof. Marcus W. Jernegan, of the University of
Chicago. His extracts have been supplemented from the series of excerpts from colonial
newspapers relating to New Jersey, as published in the New Jersey Archives, and from
sundry other sources, to which reference is made in the course of the discussion. How-
ever, no pretense is made that all of the data extant in such sources has been used.

« Am. J. of Ed., XXVI, 196.

21

22 ENGLISH GEAMMAK IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

are preserved in fragmentary form at best. Moreover, the data relate
almost exclusively to private schools, many of which may not have
advertised ; they offer little or no bearing upon the curricula of free
public schools of the eighteenth century. The writer has seen very
little evidence that public schools were offering English grammar
before 1775.68 In all likelihood they were to some extent, but no proof
to that effect has come to the writer's attention. No English grammar
was offered in the public schools of Boston before 1T75.69

In footnotes are presented data from various colonies. Informa-
tion is distributed as follows : Date of the school advertisement, name
of the schoolmaster, extracts (quoted verbatim from the advertise-
ments) indicating instruction in grammar and, finally, the reference
to the newspaper in which the advertisement was published. It was
customary for a successful schoolmaster, like Hugh Hughes, 1767,
and Thomas Byerley, contemporary, both of New York, to advertise
in various papers in succeeding years. With a few exceptions a
schoolmaster's name appears but once in the lists below. In some
cases, like that of David Dove, the same schoolmaster taught in sev-
eral different schools in successive periods of service.

One caution should be borne in mind. There is no positive evi-
dence that many of the schools advertised actually convened. Fre-
quently a schoolmaster " prepares to open a school if given sufficient
encouragement," meaning if he secured enough pupils to make the
project pay. Moreover, it is quite likely that, as with some schools
to-day, the prospectus of a curriculum for advertising purposes was
somewhat more pretentious than the actual school practices warranted.

The schools here cited are, with very few exceptions, located in
cities of importance, and schoolmasters in smaller places, in planta-
tion schools, and in villages throughout each colony could not, or did
not, advertise. Hence, schools of smaller communities may have been
teaching grammar of which there is no record. This may be true,
although a number of the schools cited in the list below were in small
communities. Effort here is merely to cite available data upon which
to base a reasonably sound inference as to when English grammar
made its first appearances. Undoubtedly it was a new subject, pre-
sented in very few textbooks, as no American texts in grammar were
published in the colonies before Samuel Johnson, of New York, in
1765,70 and none of the grammars from England were reprinted in
America until Dilworth's, in 1747. That few English grammars
were imported before 1750 is likewise almost certain.71 Now the

• Except in free school in Maryland. See Chap. II, p. 30.

69 See discussion of Joseph Ward's school, Chap. II, p. 34.

70 See Chap. II, p. 35.

71 See Chap. II, p. 33.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 23

newness of the subject, the abject ignorance of the village school-
masters, and the general absence of textbooks 72 make it appear likely
that English grammar did not generally make its way into the pub-
lic schools until some time after it was taught in the more prosperous
private schools of the cities. Upon this basis, then, coupled with the
fact that private schools capable of undertaking grammar estab-
lished themselves usually in cities, credence may be placed in the
conclusions reached in the following discussion. •

It may be pointed out also that scrupulous care has been taken to
select from the advertisements of more than 500 schools only those
in which it is reasonably certain that a deliberate attempt was made
to " teach the English language grammatically." A large number of
schools which may have taught grammar were rejected.73

Moreover, if the term " grammar " appears in the advertisement,
with no certain indication that it signifies English, the assumption
has been made that it means Latin grammar. Where English
branches are announced as the core of the curriculum, with no spe-
cific mention of grammar, they have also been rejected.

NEW ENGLAND.

The writer has seen only six references to New England schools
which give positive evidence of teaching English grammar before
1775. 74 It is surprising to find such meager evidence of instruction

72 See Chap. II, p. 33.

73 A typical rejected case is William Cheatarns school in Burlington, N. J., where, In
176.3, he taught " Latin. French, English, Writing and Arithmetic." Maryland Gazette,
July 11, 1763. If Cheatam had meant reading, writing, and spelling in the English part
of his curriculum, he probably would have said so. Large numbers of advertisements use
these terms for English branches.

Reliable evidence that the term " English " in some advertisements, at least, included
grammatical treatment is found in the fact that Franklin's Academy, in which it is cer-
tain that grammatical instruction was given (see Chap. Ill, p. 44), announces only
" Wherein youth shall be taught the Latin, Greek, English, French, and German
languages." Pt. G., Dec. 11, 1750.

Furthermore, schools and schoolmasters' advertising as " capable of teaching gram-
mar," " giving instruction in grammar." " giving instruction in the English language,"
and the like, have been rejected. Md. G., Aug. 20, 1752 ; ibid., Dec. 13, 1764.

74 1766, John Griffith, Boston, " Continues to teach English Grammar." Boston Gazette,
Sept. 20, also Boston Post Boy, Sept. 22.

1766, Richard Pateshall, Boston, " English with propriety according to the Rules of
Grammar." B. G.. Sept. 15 ; ibid., Sept. 28.

1769. Joseph Ward, Boston, " Understanding the English Grammar." Boston Chronicle,
Apr. 20. " The last two years of my school life (between 1765 and 1770), nobody taught
English grammar (in Boston) but Col. Ward, who was self-taught, and set up a school in
Boston ; our class studied Lowth in college." Memorandum of an Eminent Clergyman,
C. S. J. (1850), 311.

1771, Theodore Foster, Providence, R. I., " English Grammar by Rule." Providence
Gazette, June 8.

1772, Joseph Ward, Boston, " English Grammar School is now Open." " Those who
incline to learn the English Grammar." B. G., Oct. 25.

1773, Wm. Payne, Boston, " English Grammar." Ibid., Nov. 14.

Felt, writing in 1842 of education in Salem, Mass., gives a list of textbooks whose " use
appears to have commenced here and in other towns of Massachusetts . . . about the

24 ENGLISH GBAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

in grammar in Boston. There may have been other schools teaching
grammar during this period, but the internal evidence of the state-
ments of Pateshall and Ward leads to the belief that few, if any, were
doing so.

Three successive advertisements show that Pateshall was trans-
forming his school so as to provide a new curriculum in English. In
1754 he taught " Writing, Arithmetic and the English and Latin
Tongues." 75 This is a typical private grammar school of the period,
according to the interpretation we have followed, and indicates that
no grammar was taught. In 1761 Pateshall gives " Public Notice "
of a school " teaching reading and spelling English with propriety,
and the Rudiments of the Latin Tongue." 76 This indicates that his
school was turning more extensively to English ; " with propriety " is
a phrase commonly used in association with teaching grammar. And
in 1766 Pateshall's school is announced " where he will teach Writing
and Arithmetic, the Latin Tongue, Reading and Spelling English
with Propriety, according to the Rules of Grammar." 7T Therefore
during the 12 years covered by these advertisements (1754-1766) this
private school was transformed by laying emphasis upon English.
The third advertisement, in 1766, clearly indicates that the school
offered instruction in grammar.

Ward's announcements throw light on the absence of grammatical
instruction in English. In 1769 he announces an —

English Grammar School . . . where he teaches Reading, Spelling, Writing,
Arithmetic, The English Grammar. . . . Those who go to the Free Schools and
incline to learn the English Grammar he will teach from 11 to 12 o'clock. . . .
The Understanding the English Grammar is so necessary for those who have not
a liberal education. . . . Such a school is said by the Literati to be very much
wanted in this town.78

The foregoing is one of the earliest uses of the name " English
grammar school," and the rest of Ward's statement indicates that the
term is used because of the emphasis on English grammar, the title
being derived in an exactly analogous way to the term " Latin gram-
mar school." Here, too, is evidence that the free schools of Boston did
not include English grammar in their curricula and evidence, though
somewhat less positive, that private schools did not generally teach
the subject. Ward evidently does not think that Richard Pateshall

particular years which accompany them. The reference of them- as to time and place is
more vague than desired. But want of data . . . forbid it to be otherwise. Spelling
books, Dilworth's 1750; English grammar, Salmon's, Lily's, 1761. British grammar,
printed' in Boston 1784, Lowth's, Ash's, Webster's, 1785." Ann. of Salem, 385-6.

This is the type of reference so vague as to be of no value for our purposes. The writer
has seen no other reference to an English grammar by Salmon. Lily's was not an English
grammar. This and many similar references are discarded as worthless.

"Boston News Letter, Dec. 26, 1754.

78 Ibid., May 14, 1761.

"B. G., Sept. 15, 1766.

T8B. Chron., Apr. 20, 1769.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 25

(1766) was conducting a school of which the " Literati " approved.
Private-school men appear to have often been skeptical of the pre-
tensions of rival schoolmasters.

The announcement of John Griffith, the first evidence available of
the time when grammar was introduced in Boston, is highly sugges-
tive of the conclusion we must reach. He affirms, in 1766, that he
" continues to teach English Grammar." How long before that date
he had carried out this part of his program is uncertain. However,
from the discussion of successive advertisements of Pateshall and
Ward, considered above, it is concluded that they began their work in
grammar soon after 1766.

The conclusion reached, then, is somewhat qualified. In New
England a few private schools began to emphasize English grammar
in their curricula about the year 1765, one decade before the Revolu-
tion. John Griffith, Richard Pateshall, and Joseph Ward were lead-
ers in this movement among the schoolmen of Boston.

NEW YORK.

According to the evidence available upon the numerous attempts
to teach declamation, oratory, and grammar, the middle colonies show
a much more marked tendency to stress English than did New
England. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania seem to have
been at least a decade in advance of their sister colonies to the north.
The evidence of schools " teaching English Grammatically " in these
three colonies includes 39. In New York at least 12 schools, the first
somewhat doubtful, were teaching grammar before 1775.79

79 1751, Garrett Noel, New York, "Reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar.". New York
Gazette revived in the Weekly Post Boy, Sept. 2.

1753, John Lewis, New York, " Speaking, reading, spelling and writing English accord-
ing to English Grammar." Ibid., June 4.

1761, Elizabeth Wilcocks, New York, " With the Whole English Grammar." New
York Mercury, Aug. 31.

1761, W. Rudge, Newtown, " Writing, Arith., Grammar, Bookkeeping." Ibid., June 15.

1763, Wm. Jones, New York, " English Language by Grammatical Rules." Ibid., Apr. 25.

1763, Sam. Giles, New York, " Desire to Learn the English Grammar and write their
Mother Tongue." N. Y. M. and W. P. B., Apr. 21.

1766, , New York, " The English Grammar Rationally taught." Ibid., June 5.

1771, Thomas Ulrich, New York, " English Language Grammatically." N. Y. G. and
W. M., Dec. 31.

1771, Hugh Hughes, New York, " English Language Grammatically." Ibid., Dec. 30.

1773, Thomas Byeiiey, New York, " Scholars interested in the grammatical institutes."
Ibid., Aug. 23.

1774, John Cobb, New York, " English Grammar." N. Y. J. or Gen. Ad., June 1.

1775, John Cobb, Flatbush, " Principles of English Grammar," N. Y. G. arid W. M.,
July 4.

Kemp, speaking of English grammar in the charity schools of the city of New York,
says : " Mr. Ball added English grammar to the program . . . when he succeeded Mr.
Hildreth. ... It is the only instance of it to be found save the special instruction in it
which Forster introduced for a while." Sup. Sch. in Col. N. Y., by S. P. G., 265.
Hildreth retired in 1777. Ibid., 115. Forster was master in West Chester Parish from
1717 to 1745. Ibid., 153. It it is true that the latter was giving special instruction in
English grammar before 1745, he deserves to be classed as one of the very earliest in
America.

26 ENGLISH GRAMMAE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Noel's case is cited as doubtful because it does not specifically indi-
cate instruction in grammar. The remainder of his announcement
indicates an elementary program with no mention of Latin; this
seems to suggest that the '' grammar " of his advertisement means
English grammar. The first undoubted case is Lewis's school, opened
in 1753 for " speaking, reading, spelling and writing English accord-
ing to English Grammar." 80

NEW JERSEY.

In the New .Jersey series between 1704 and 1750 there appear to be
only six references to schools, all of which are advertisements for
teachers. Three of these indicate that the subject matter the master
is desired to teach is the elementary curriculum of the ordinary town
school, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, ciphering, spelling, and
good behavior. References to 12 schools teaching grammar appear
after 1850.81

Two schools, 1751 and 1753, while they do not specify English
grammar, point strongly in that direction. Bartholemew Rowley, of
Burlington, " Professes to teach the Latin and English Grammar." 82
Probably this refers to a Latin grammar, with accidence explained in
English, after the order of Lily's or Adam's grammar.83 Neverthe-
less, the very fact that Latin is so advertised indicates a tendency
toward the grammar of the vernacular.

In 1753 a lo.ttery for an " English and Grammar-school " is pro-
moted in Trenton " for raising 225 pieces of eight toward building a
house to accommodate an English and grammar-school and paying a
master." 84 To be noted here is the slight distinction between an
English curriculum and a grammar curriculum in the same school.

80 N. Y. G. Rev. in W. P. B., June 4, 1753.

81 1751, Bartholemew Rowley, Burlington, " Latin and English Grammar." Pa. G.,
Sept. 19 ; also Sept. 26.

1753, , Trenton, " English and Grammar-school." Ibid., Apr. 26.

1762, Cather Robert, Elizabeth Town, " English Tongue Taught as a Language." Pa.
J., Apr. 1, also N. Y. M., Jan. 18.

1763, S. Finley, Princeton, " English Language Grammatically." Ibid., Nov. 10.

1764, John Reid, Trenton, " English Grammar, Reading, Grammatically." Pa. G.,
Sept. 13.

1764, , Moores Town, "Wanted a schoolmaster to teach the English language

grammatically." Ibid., Aug. 3.

1764, Joseph Periam, Princetown, " English Language grammatically." Pa. J., May 31.

1769, J. Witherspoon, Princeton, " Remarks on the grammar and spelling of the Eng-
lish Tongue." Ibid., Mar. 2.

1769, Princeton College, Princeton, " Scholars desiring admission should be well
acquainted with Rending English with propriety, spelling the English language, and
writing it without grammatical errors." N. Y. J. and W. M., May 1.

1771, Grammar School, Queen's College. " Mr. Frederick Frelinghousen . . . teach
the English Language grammatically." N. Y. J. or Gen. Ad., Oct. 24.

1771, James Conn, Elizabeth Town, " Teach English Grammar." N. Y. G. or W. P. B.,
Oct. 21.

1775, Newark Academy, Newark, " English Language." N. Y. G. and W. M., Mar. 27.

82 Pa. G., Sept. 19, 1751 ; N. J. Arc, XIX, 99.

83 See Appendix B.

84 Pa. G., Apr. 26, 1753; N. J. Arc, XIX, 245.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 27

The step to an English-grammar school is easy and natural and
throws light upon the shifting of emphasis from the Latin grammar
to English grammar in the last quarter of the century.

Not until 1762, when Robert Cather, of Elizabeth Town, East
New Jersey, opened a boarding school, do we have an undoubted case
in point. Cather speaks in no doubtful terms :

As also, Boys to be instructed in the Beauty and Propriety of the English
Tongue, which shall be taught as a Language; the best English Authors shall
be read & explain'd; the Art Rhetoric or Oratory, shall be taught with Care
and Exactness ; Specimens of the Boys' Proficiency therein shall be given every
Quarter. . . . It's hoped the undertaking will meet with due encouragement
especially from such who know the importance of a Proper English Education.85

Significant is the fact that S. Finley, president of the college in
Princeton, is second on the list, announcing that in the English school
connected with the college " is proposed to be taught the English
Language grammatically, and that Boys, when found capable, be
exercised in Compositions, as well as in pronouncing Orations pub-
lically." 86 The teacher in this academy was Joseph Periam, a young
graduate of the college, who, at the commencement of 1762, " to relax
the attention of the audience," delivered " an English Oration on
Politeness, which gave universal satisfaction for the justness of the
sentiments, the elegance of the composition, and the propriety with
which it was delivered." 8T

Here is an eighteenth-century college, whose curriculum was very
largely classical, announcing an English school with English gram-
mar as its central study. The academy is "An Appendage " of New
Jersey College, according to the announcement. This fact makes it
unlikely that the academy was a private venture. We are led to con-
clude that the president, for popularity in advertising,88 stresses Eng-
lish. The Philadelphia Academy, afterward the University of Penn-
sylvania, a near rival, was doing so very successfully in this decade.89

The Moores Town advertisement, in 1764, throws an amusing light
upon the relative place of the vernacular and the classics. The adver-
tisement reads : " Wanted, a schoolmaster, to teach the English lan-
guage grammatically, write a genteel hand, Arithmetic, and the useful
branches of Mathematics " ; then it adds, u and if he could teach the
Latin, it would be more agreeable to some of his Employers. . . . " 90

86 Pa. J., Apr. 1, 1762 ; N. J. Arc, XXIV, 21 ; also N. Y. M., Jan. 18, 1762.

This much resembles the plan of Franklin's English Academy, 1750, and is cited in a
later chapter as evidence of the supreme influence of Franklin's experiment with the
English curriculum. See Chap. Ill, p. 44.

80 Ibid., Nov. 10, 1763, N. J. Arc, XXIV, 266.

87 Pa. G., Oct. 21, 1762. Quoted, MacLean, Hist, of Col. of N. J., I, 154.

88 In 1762 the profits from the grammar school connected with the college were added to
President Finley's salary. This, and the presence of young Periam, may have been the
cause of the new emphasis on English. MacLean, op. cit., 355.

89 See Chap. Ill, p. 46.

80 Pa. G., Aug. 2, 1764.

28 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

„

Evidently a minority of this Moores Town committee still clung
the Latin, but the majority, making courteous allusions to their col-
leagues, insist upon the primary importance of the mother tongue,
with English grammar as the basis.

Differences of opinion in regard to the new subject did not trouble
the school committees alone. That the school officers often reflected
the conflicting opinions of school constituents is evidenced by resolu-
tions of the Germantown (Pa.) Union (English) School, March 3,
1764. Dove, formerly of Philadelphia Academy, was master.

Whether the Mode of instruction generally should be taught Grammatically,
attended with lectures. . . . The Board having deliberated . . . Resolved, That
the instructions of the youth in the Languages Grammatically, and with Suitable
lectures at the same time . . . will undoubtedly tend to the most effectual
Advancement of the Knowledge of the Scholars. . . . But the Board is never-
theless of the opinion, that every parent and guardian should have in his election
to direct whether his child or ward shall be taught in the above manner, or in
the usual mode taught in common schools. . . . Many parents and guardians
may not incline to have their children or wards taught in any other manner
than what has been hitherto practiced in this school. The . . . English Master
. . . shall be obliged himself to hear each scholar three times a week, who is
taught reading, writing and arithmetic, in the said common mode.91

The suggestion is that Dove's new " English Language Grammati-
cally " methods were not entirely popular. This resolution is also
indicative of what " the usual mode in the school " was. The school
committee orders that the English master shall " hear " the scholar ;
that is, hear him recite the lessons which he has memorized from the
textbook.

In many of these eighteenth-century communities with their highly
emphasized democracy this dual struggle among school patrons may
have taken place. In Moores Town part of the public clung tena-
ciously to the Latin and the old curriculum ; in Germantown part of
the school patrons fought innovations in methods of teaching. Thus
did " the road their fathers trod " diverge from the path of progress.
Against just such traditionalism, in practically every colony, did
instruction in the mother tongue have to fight its way.92

n Travis, Germantown Academy, 24-25.

M An advertisement of an Elizabeth Town school, in 1769, shows that a writing master
used what is almost the modern method of teaching composition. To be sure, the emphasis
is still on writing and spelling. However, the original compositions of the upper class
are to be reviewed and errors pointed out. In many of the advertisements cited in this
thesis some form of composition is added to the teaching of grammar.

The teacher is the same Joseph Periam whom we saw above as the first teacher in the
English school of Princeton college. He is now resigning to take this school.

"As this gentleman is skilled in penmanship, a particular attention will be paid, if
desired by the parents . . . pupils according to their capacities. . . . Some in writing
the usual copies ; qthers in transcribing . . . from approved authors, either letters to
acquire a taste for the epistolary style or select pieces to be committed to memory, which
they will be taught to pronounce with grace and propriety. Those of riper judgments
will be required to write their own thoughts in the form of letters, descriptions, &c. These
transcripts and letters will be carefully reviewed and errors pointed out in such a manner
as will be most likely to make them accurate in writing and spelling." N. Y. G. and
W. M., July 24, 1769 ; N. J. Arc, XXVI, 474. It will be noted that Franklin also insists
upon careful criticism of the pupils by the English master. See Chap. Ill, p. 44.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 29

PENNSYLVANIA.

Pennsylvania appears to stand ahead of all her sister colonies in
championing thorough instruction in the mother tongue. The reasons
for this, under Franklin's leadership, are discussed elsewhere.93 In
1743, at least 20 years earlier than any record found of English gram-
mar in Massachusetts and 10 years before any in New Jersey, one
Charles Fortesque announced :

To be taught by Charles Fortesque, late Free-School Master of Chester, at
his home, in the alley commonly called Mr. Taylor; the latin Tongue, English
in a grammatical manner, navigation, surveying, mensuration, geography," etc.94

This school of Fortesque's, with one other,95 are the only undoubted
cases the writer has seen of attempts formally to teach English gram-
mar in America before 1750.

Next on the list is Franklin's English Academy, Philadelphia.98
For reasons elaborated in the succeeding chapter the evidence seems
to show that Franklin's Academy, because of its prominence, may be
said to mark the beginning of formal instruction in English grammar
in American schools. Due appreciation of the priority of Waterland
and Fortesque in obscure schools is here acknowledged.

Of great significance is the fact that at least eight schools in Phila-
delphia were teaching, or had been teaching, grammar before 1760,97
and 13 schools before 1766, when we are positive that Griffith and
Pateshall were teaching in Boston. Philadelphia had at least 12

•3 See Chap. Ill, p. 43.
MPa. G., Dec. I, 1743.

•» William Waterland, Wassamacaw, S. C, 1734, see p. 31.
M Pa. G., Dec. 2, 1750, quoted in Montgomery, Hist, of TJ. of P., 139.
•T 1743, Charles Fortesque, Philadelphia, " English in a Grammatical Manner." Pa. G.,
Dec. 1.

1750, Franklin Academy, Philadelphia, " English Language." Ibid., Dec. 2.

1751, Gabriel Nesman, Philadelphia, " English by daily practice, after the choicest and
correct grammars." Ibid., Jan. 1.

1751, David Dove, Philadelphia, " English Grammar." Ibid., Aug. 29.

1754, John Jones, Philadelphia, " English as a Language." Ibid., Oct. 24.

1755, Robert Coe, Philadelphia, " Teaches reading grammatically." Ibid., Apr. 24.

1758, Messrs. Dove and Riley, Philadelphia. " English Language, according to the most
exact Rules of Grammar." Ibid., Jan. 12.

1759, Dove and Williams, Philadelphia, " Grammatical knowledge of their mother tongue
as it is laid down in Greenwoods English Grammar." Ibid., Aug. 9.

1761, Joseph Garner, Philadelphia, " English Grammatically, according to the most
modern and familiar Method." Ibid., July 3.

1764, Subscriber, Philadelphia, " the Reading, Speaking, etc., will be taught gram-
matically." Ibid., Sept. 1.

1761, David Dove, Germantown, " English as a Language." Ibid., Nov. 19.

1765, Alexander Power, Philadelphia, " English Grammatically." Ibid., June 13.

1766, John Downey, Philadelphia, " English Tongue grammatically." Ibid., June 5.

1767, Mary M'Allister, Philadelphia, " English Language with proper Accent and
Emphasis." Ibid., June 4.

1767, Mr. Dove, Philadelphia, " Own Language according to the exact Rules of gram-
mar." Ibid., Oct. 29.

1769, Henry Moore, Potts Town, " English Language grammatically." Ibid., Sept. 28.
1767, Lazarus Pine, Philadelphia, " English Language Grammatically." Ibid., Jan. 29.
1772, John Hefferman, Philadelphia, " Grammatical English." Ibid., Sept. 14.

30 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

schools teaching grammar before the first authentic case we have seen
in Massachusetts and 11 before the first case found in New Jersey. In
comparison with the South we shall see that Pennsylvania schools,
with two exceptions, appear to antedate them in adding grammar.
These exceptions are William Waterland's school in Wassamacaw,
S. C, and the doubtful instance of William Gough's plantation school
in the same colony. These exceptions indicate that there were in the
southern colonies, and probably in all, schools teaching grammar
which are not here recorded.

MARYLAND.

In Maryland the first record we have seen — the announcement of
William Clajon 98 — has considerable interest. Clajon was a French-
man who had immigrated in 1754 and under the patronage of a
prominent clergyman in Annapolis began teaching French, Latin,
and English in that year." He paid little attention to English gram-
mar. At least he did not at first advertise it. But three years later,
when he may be supposed to have become fairly well established in his
profession, he announces:

The subscriber having by great application acquired a reasonable knowledge
of the English Grammar, he proposes to teach the same at the Free School of
Annapolis. Those Parents, who can not afford their children spending several
years in the Learning of Greek and Latin, may, by this proposal, procure to
them the only benefit commonly expected from these languages, THE LEARN-
ING OF THEIR OWN. Besides their daughters can as easily enjoy the same
advantage.100

Can it be that Clajon had read the signs of the times as pointing to
an English education and had during his three years' residence in
America prepared himself to teach the English grammar? 1 At any
rate he voices the argument which, after Franklin's proposals for an
English school, seems to have seized firm hold upon an increasing pro-
portion of the constituency of the schools — Latin of no practical
benefit ; English a suitable substitute.2

98 1757, William Clajon, Annapolis, " Knowledge of English Grammar. . . . The Learn-
ing of their Own." Md. G., Apr. 28.

1764, Jacob Giles, Mount Pleasant, " The English Language Grammatically." Ibid.,
July 19.

1765, Joseph Condon, Cecil County Free School, " English by Good Methods and Gram-
matically." Pa. G., Mar. 14.

1769, Somerset Academy, Somerset County, " Rudiments of English Grammar." Va. G.,
Feb. 23.

1772, Daniel Melville, Annapolis, " Teacher of a Practical English Grammar." Md. G.,
Dec. 17.

89 Md. G., Nov. 4, 1754.

100 Md. G., Apr. 28, 1757.

1 Col. Joseph Ward, one of the first to teach grammar and geography in Boston, was
" self-taught." Memorandum of an eminent clergyman, Am. J. of Ed., 13, 746.

3 See Chap. JJI, p. 56.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 31

VIRGINIA.

To Virginia credit must be given for the first textbook in English
grammar written by an American. Hugh Jones, professor of mathe-
matics in William and Mary College, wrote "A Short English Gram-
mar," published in England in 1T24.3 It seems reasonable to believe
that while Jones was teaching in William and Mary some attention
to the subject may have been paid, though direct evidence is lacking.
But this book was published, so far as we have been able to discover,
10 years before any record of a school or schoolmaster outlining a
program which included grammar. Simple justice therefore awards
Jones, of Virginia, the place of honor in point of time.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

To South Carolina belongs the distinction of having the first school
of which wTe have seen any record as teaching English grammatically.4
In 1734—

William Waterland of Wassamacaw School . . . gives notice that any Gen-
tleman Planter or others, who want to send their Children to School, may be
provided with good conveniency for boarding. . . . Writing and Arithmetick in
all its most useful Parts, and the Rudiments of Grammar are taught, but more
particularly English, of which great care is taken, and by such methods as few
Masters care to take the Trouble of, being taught Grammatically.5

Waterland's school antedates Franklin's in Philadelphia by 16 years.
Another school, in 1742 — that of William Gough — ought to be classed
as doubtful.

He is now settled entirely at the Plantation of Mr. James Taylor, and con-
tinues to teach the several and most useful Branches of Learning (in the Eng-
lish Tongue) according to the London Method, whereby youth may be qualified
for Business by Land or Sea.'

8 A full description in Meriwether, Colonial Curriculum, 151-3.

4 1734, William Waterland, Wassamacaw, " English being taught grammatically." South
Carolina Gazette, Nov. 16.

1742, William Gough, Plantation School, " Most useful branches of the Mother Tongue.**
Ibid., Feb. 13.

1755, Beresford County, " Wanted, a Master to teach the English Language." Ibid.,
Nov. 6.

1766, John Emmet, Charlestown, " With the English Grammar, to explain, parse, and
sketch the English Tongue." Ibid., Sept. 28.

« 1766, Andrew D'Ellicent, Charlestown, " English Language Grammatically." Ibid.,
May 20.

1767. William Johnson, Charlestown, " Principles of English Grammar." Ibid., June 15.
1769, Alexander Alexander, Charlestown, " Together with the leading English Gram-
mar." Ibid., Sept. 7.

1769, William Watson, Charlestown, " Taught to write grammatically." Ibid., June 29.

1770, James Oliver, Charlestown, " English Grammar." Ibid., Oct. 30.

1770, Elizabeth Duneau, Charlestown, " Grammatically the English Language." Ibid.,
May 17.

1771, William Walton, Charlestown, " English Language grammatically." Ibid., Oct. 20.

1772, James Thompson, Charlestown, "Also grammatical use of their own." Ibid.,
Dec. 10.

• S. C. G., Nov. 16, 1734.

• Ibid., Feb. 13, 1742.

32 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

One especially clear-cut statement — that of William Johnson,
Charlestown, 1767 — announces :

As soon as they begin to read and write, he proposes to initiate them into the
principles of English Grammar, in a manner much more easy than that which
is generally practiced, and without much interfering with the work of the
school.7

The obvious interpretation is that grammar is frequently taught in
a difficult manner, which interferes with the work of the school. But
the first part of Johnson's statement is evidently not intended to con-
vey that impression. He prefaces it with these remarks :

It is a common, but too well grounded a complaint that a grammatical study
of our own language seldom makes any part of the ordinary method of instruct-
ing youth in our school.8

Johnson's first statement, as interpreted in the foregoing, would be
grossly inconsistent with the plain assertion of his prefatory remarks.
In short, Johnson's testimony bears out the conclusion reached in this
section, that grammatical instruction in English before 1750 was^
taught only in an occasional school.

GEORGIA.

We have seen'recorded two schools in Georgia as teaching grammar
before 1775.9

CONCLUSIONS.

A number of private schools gave instruction in English grammar
before the Revolution. The three-score schools which we have named
include not more than one- tenth of the advertisements ♦ of schools
available for examination; about one private school in 10 for the
entire 50 years (1725-1775) seems to have been turning in the direc-
tion of grammar. However, the showing for the subject is better than
at first appears, for the advertisements cover many schools wThich
would not have been found teaching grammar even a half century
later, when English grammar had come into its own in the curriculum.
Only an occasional private school of the secondary grade taught Eng-
lish grammar in the American colonies between 1750 and 1775.

There is evidence of only two schools — Waterland's in South Caro-
lina in 1734 and Fortesque's in Philadelphia in 1743 — which were
without question teaching the subject before 1750. No further infor-
mation is available concerning the masters of these schools. This
excludes the possibility that, under the influence of Hugh Jones,

TIbid., June 15, 1767.
« Ibid.

• 1763, John Portrees, Savannah, " Writing and English Grammar." Ga. G., June 30.
1774, Stephen Biddurph, Savannah, " Latin, English, French, and Celtic Languages
grammatically." Ibid., Mar. 2.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 33

who wrote a grammar in 1724, after he had severed his relations with
William and Mary, some attention may have been paid to grammatical
instruction in Virginia.

The decade 1750-1760 in the middle colonies marks for America
the serious beginnings of instruction in English grammar. The north-
ern and southern colonies seem to have commenced one to two decades
later. After 1750 the middle colonies, under the leadership of Ben-
jamin Franklin in Pennsylvania, began to emphasize the English
curriculum, with grammar as the basic study. It received steadily
increasing attention from persons starting private schools. There-
fore the year 1750 is taken as the most fitting date to mark the begin-
ning of formal English-grammar teaching in America, especially as
it coincides exactly with the establishment of Franklin's English
School, itself the progenitor of a long line of schools of the middle
colonies which based vernacular instruction upon English grammar.

2. ENGLISH GRAMMARS IN AMERICA BEFORE 1784.10

The first English grammar by an American of which the writer
has learned was written in 1724 by Hugh Jones, professor of mathe-
matics in William and Mary College.11 This book was published in
London. So far as is known only one copy is extant, that in the
British Museum. No indication concerning its use has come to light.

The earliest instruction in English grammar in the colonies was
conducted either without textbooks or with books imported from
England. "Wickersham, speaking for Pennsylvania, represents a con-
dition which was prevalent in regard to the importations of grammars :

Whether any more than a few straggling copies of the old English grammars
. . . ever found their way from England to Pennsylvania is unknown; several
of them, however, were reprinted in Philadelphia . . . and may have been used
to some extent, but the first works generally taught in the schools were the
Philadelphia editions of Webster, Harrison, Murray, and Comly, mainly the last
two.12

Evidence is available that at least 12 grammatical texts of England
were imported or reprinted in America before 1784.13 Of these,
Thomas Dilworth's "A New Guide to the English Tongue," London,
1740, appears to have been the most widely used. Dilworth's book
was primarily a speller, and probably introduced as such; but it con-
tained also a " Brief but Comprehensive English Grammar " and a

10 1784 is the date of Noah Webster's Grammar, Part II of his Grammatical Institutes of
the English Languages, usually considered the first grammar by an American author.

11 Full description in Meriwether, Colonial Curriculum, 151-3.

12 Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. In Pa., 202.

13 Appendix A, p. 155.

60258°— 22 3

34 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

reader. Its popularity was widespread.14 Another book, published
first in England three decades earlier than Dilworth's, was also
imported to a limited extent. This was James Greenwood's "An Essay
Towards a Practical English Grammar," London, 1711. Barnard
gives the date of the edition probably best known in the
colonies as 1753.15 The book of James Harris — " Hermes, or a
Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Grammar," London, 1751, which
Wickersham says was reprinted in Philadelphia 16 and reached its
seventh edition in 1825 17 — was influential in shaping grammars used
in America. A. Fisher's " Practical New Grammar," London, 1763,
reached its twenty-eighth edition in America by 1795.18 Goold Brown
used a " New Edition, Enlarged, Improved, and Corrected," 1800.19

One of the most popular grammars imported and printed here was
" The British Grammar," anonymous, London, 1760. An early stu-
dent of the history of grammar in America asserts that it was prob-
ably the first English grammar reprinted on this side of the Atlantic.20
This is an error. Lowth was reprinted in 1775 ; 21 the first reprint of
Dilworth's was 1747,22 while " The British Grammar " was first
reprinted in Boston, 1784.23

If Dilworth's " New Guide " was the most extensively used, it was
because the book was primarily a speller, grammar, and reader com-
bined. The text, considered strictly as a grammar, of most extensive
use and influence in the colonies was Lowth 's "A Short Introduction
to English Grammar," London, 1758. Harvard used Lowth as early
as 1774 24 and as late as 1841. 25 Meanwhile other colleges introduced
it into their curricula.26 Wells says that Lowth was " first published
anonymously . . . soon came into general notice, and has probably
exerted more influence than any other treatise in forming the char-
acter of the numerous grammars that have since been used as school
books, in Great Britain and the United States." Lowth's greatest

14 The Grst American reprint seems to have been the edition of Franklin, in Philadelphia.
3 747. Evans, Am. Bibl., 3, 76. Evans omitted the 1747 edition from his second volume.
He lists f*C different American editions between 1747 and 1792. Ten thousand copies
printed in one edition seems to have been a popular number. Ibid., 4, 314 and 7, 111.

The Lancaster, Pa., edition of 1778 omitted the grammar until (as the publication said)
" peace and commerce shall again smile on us, and when in spite of Britain and a certain
one named Beelzebub, we shall have paper and books of every kind in abundance." Wick
ersham, op. cit., 198.

"Am. J. of Ed., XIII, 639.

16 Wickersham, op. cit., 202.

"C. S. J., 3, 209.

18 Barnard, op. cit, 13, 633.

10 Brown, Gram, of Gram., XV.

20 Wallis (W. B. Fowle), C. S. J., 12, 20.

21 Evans, op. cit., 5, 150.

22 Ibid., 3, 76 footnote.

23 Ibid., 6, 274.

24 C. S. J., 11 (1849), 257.

25 Ibid., 3 (1841), 230.

26 Discussion in the following section.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 35

significance is that most of his rules have been copied verbatim by
Lindley Murray and again from him by many compilers of lesser
note.27 Webster says that " Wallis and Lowth are the two ablest
writers on English Grammar." 28 Lowth enjoyed numerous American
reprints.29

One other important book was Ash's " Grammatical Institutes,"
first published in London, 1763, and enjoying four other editions there
before 1795.30 Its subtitle was "An Easy Introduction to Dr.
Lowth's English Grammar " and was based on Lowth 's seventh Lon-
don edition.31 Ash was reprinted and sold in New York in 1774 by
High Gain.32

In addition to the books named, there were numerous other English
publications which contained grammars, not strictly textbooks, cir-
culating in America before 1784. In this list are McTurner's " Spell-
ing Book and English Grammar," Fenning's Dictionary, Buchanan's
Dictionary, Johnson's Dictionary, all of which contained brief gram-
mars. In the advertisements of colonial booksellers we see indications
that other grammars of which we have found no definite trace made
their way from England. Numerous advertisements announce
" Spelling Books by the dozen," " English Grammars," etc.33 This
is indicative of the conclusion that must be reached: Before gram-
mars were widely printed in America the circulation of popular books
imported was quite common. Keprints began to appear frequently
after 1747.

Finally, more interesting, if not so significant, is the fact that
several other Americans besides Hugh Jones antedated Noah Webster
in publishing English grammars. In 1765 Samuel Johnson, the first
president of King's College, published in New York " The First Easy
Rudiments of Grammar, applied to the English Tongue. By one
who is extremely desirous to promote good literature in America, and
especially a right English education. For the use of Schools." 34
This volume of 36 pages appears to have been the first grammar pre-
pared by an American and published in America. It was printed by

17 Wells, C. S. J., 3, 230. » Ibid.

29 First reprint, 1775, Philadelphia, Evans, op. cit., 5, 150.

80 Brown, Gram, of Gram., XII.

81 Evans, op. cit., 5, 5.
3* Ibid.

83 Pa. G., Jan. 6, 1742; S. C. G., Oct. 3, 1748; B. N. L., Sept. 5, 1750, etc.

34 Evans, op. cit., 4, 18.

Johnson wrote his English grammar for use in the preliminary education of his two
grandsons. He prepared also a Hebrew grammar to go side by side with his English
grammar, the structure of the two languages bearing in his view a close resemblance. He
said : "I am still pursuing the same design of promoting the study of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures . . . and I think of no better project than to get the grammar of it studied with a
grammar of our own excellent language as the best introduction to what is called a liberal
education. . . . Beardsley, Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson. 306-7.

Beardsley affirms that Johnson's book was printed by W. Paden, London, in 1767, and
four years afterwards a second edition was published by the same printer. Ibid., 307,

36 ENGLISH GRAMMAK IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

J. Holt, near Exchange, in Broad Street, New York.35 Johnson was
followed, in 1773, by Thomas Byerley, also a schoolmaster of New
York, who published "A Plain and Easy Introduction to English
Grammar." 36 Byerley has an elaborate description of the methods
used in his school, a discussion of which appears in a later chapter.37

In 1779 Abel Curtis, of Dartmouth College, published "A Compend
of English Grammar: Being an Attempt to point out the Funda-
mental Principles of the English Language." 38

We have, then, the undoubted cases of Jones, 1724 ; Johnson, 1765 ;
Byerley, 1773 ; and Curtis, 1779, to cite as American writers publishing
grammars before Noah Webster in 1784. We conclude that Hugh
Jones was the first American author to write a textbook in English
grammar; that Samuel Johnson was the first to write a grammar
published in America ; that the books of these two men, together with
those of Byerley and Curtis, precede Webster's book in point of time.
The latter was, then, the author of at least the fifth, not the first, Eng-
lish grammar by an American. To be sure, the writer has seen no evi-
dence that any of the earlier books were widely used in the schools or
were influential in directing the new tendency in America to stress
grammatical instruction. In one sense Webster retains the place
usually assigned him as the first American grammarian. He yields to
the others only in the matter of chronological priority.

3. EARLY INSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN

COLLEGES.

When King's College was founded, President Samuel Johnson, a
Yale graduate, made this significant announcement : " It is the fur-
ther Design of this college, to instruct and perfect the Youth in the
Learned Languages, and in the arts of reasoning exactly, of ivriting
correctly, and speaking eloquently." 39 This was stated in the first
public prospectus of the college work.40 To Johnson 41 has been
assigned the honor of being the first American author of a textbook in
English grammar published on this side of the Atlantic. His book
was entitled "An English Grammar. The First Easy Rudiments of
Grammar applied to the English Tongue. By one who is extremely
desirous to promote good literature in America, and especially a Right
English Education. For the use of Schools." 42 This book was pub-
lished in 1765, more than a decade after he became president of King's

85 Ibid.

86 Evans, op. cit., 4, 353.
37 See Chap. V, p. 129.

88 Printed by Spooner, Dresden (Dartmouth College), Evans, 6, 10.

88 Pine, Columbia Col. Charters and Acts, 70.

40 N. Y. G. or W. P. B., July 3, 1754.

«■ See Chap. II, p. 35.

42 Evans, Am. Bibl., 4, 18,

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 37

College. Obviously the book was not of college grade. His early
authorship is cited here to indicate the genesis of the Columbia plan
of education promulgated by his son, William Samuel Johnson,
president of Columbia in 1785.

In this plan emphasis was laid upon English that was quite in
keeping with the ideal set forth at the founding by the father and
with the earlier interests of the son. The plan has several features
which, taken all in all, make it an innovation in college curricula. We
concern ourselves here only with the striking emphasis on instruction
in the vernacular.43

A few years later, 1792, a pamphlet " Present State of Learning in
Columbia College " shows that the English part of the 1785 program
was thoroughly carried out.44 In fine, the King's College and
Columbia curricula show a steady growth in popularity of instruction
in the mother tongue. This is in startling contrast to the " starving,"
as Franklin called it, of English in the academy in which the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania had its beginnings.45

The experience of both Pennsylvania and Harvard shows that, as
in the case of Columbia, the first impetus in colleges toward instruc-
tion in the mother tongue came through the desire for better elocution
and oratory. In Harvard, disputations, heretofore carried on in
Latin, after the middle of the eighteenth century came to be given
in the vernacular. President Quincy, after saying that for nearly a

"The Plan of Education, 1785 :

Freshman Class. English Grammar, together with the art of reading and speaking Eng-
lish with propriety and elegance. Once a week . . . translation out of Latin into English ;
. . . this to be considered as English rather than a Latin exercise.

Sophomore Class. Once a week deliver to the President an English composition upon a
subject to be assigned.

Junior Class. Once a week, to the President, an English or Latin composition, upon a
subject to be assigned, which compositions are expected to be longer and more correct as
the students advance.

Senior Class. To deliver once a week, an English or Latin Composition to the President
upon a subject of their own- choosing.

The written exercises of each class are to be subscribed with the author's name, and
after having undergone the President's criticism are to be filed and produced at the
monthly visitations for the inspection of the Regents and Professors. So many of each
of the three senior classes as will bring it to each student's turn in a month are once a
week to repeat in the Hall . . . some proper piece of English or Latin, which the President
is to direct, and which, at the monthly visitation, may be such of their weekly exercises as
the President may think have most merit.

Plan cited in full, Snow, Col. Cur. in U. S., 93-6.

** " The President, William Samuel Johnson, LLD., is Lecturing in Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres, and instructs the students in the Grammar and proper pronunciation of the Eng-
lish Language, on the plan of Webster's and Lowth's Grammars, and Sheridan's Rhetorical
Grammar. In Rhetoric, on the plan of Holme's and Stirling's Rhetoric ... a complete
course of instruction in . . . the English Language in particular ; in the art of writing and
speaking it with propriety, elegance and force."

" Each student is obliged, every Saturday, to deliver him (President Johnson) a com-
position, in which he corrects the errors either in orthography, grammar, style or senti-
ment, and makes the necessary observations on them when he returns the composition to
the writers." Ibid., 98-102.

« Smyth, Life and Writings, B. Franklin, X, 16. See Chap. Ill, p. 48.

38 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

century (1650-1750) the Harvard curriculum had resisted innova
tions, points out that in 1754 the overseers raised a committee "to
project some new method to promote oratory." The result was a sys-
tem of disputations in English, apparently a radical innovation.46
But it was not until 1766 that a committee of the board proposes there
should be a " distinct Tutor in elocution, composition in English,
Khetoric, and other parts of Belles Lettres." 47

About the time that this new turn toward vernacular instruction
was coming in Harvard (1754-1766) the University of Pennsylvania
was being started in the Academy and Charity School of Philadelphia
(1750-1756). Chapter III of this study is devoted to an examination
of the character of this school and its influence in spreading vernacular
education in secondary schools. The point to be anticipated here from
that discussion is that good speaking and good writing in English
were the primary motives lying back of the English program, with
grammar as the central study.48

That Princeton was the first college to require grammar as an
entrance requirement, in 1819, is the statement of Broome.49 Murray,
in a study of the first-mentioned texts in the College of New Jersey
(Princeton), based upon catalogues of the institution, finds Lowth's
Grammar first in 1793, and adds that not until 1840 does grammar
appear in the catalogues as an admission requirement.50 The state-
ments of Broome and Murray do not tally by 21 years ; the difference is
entirely consistent with the extreme difficulty of assigning definite
dates for the first appearance of any subject. It is not at all certain
that statutory provisions indicate the earliest date. As a matter of
fact, both Broome and Murray are incorrect in assigning to Princeton
the first admission requirements in grammar.51

If it were true that Princeton was the first, that fact would be con-
sistent with others which can be positively stated. That the year
assigned for grammar should be so late is, however, a matter of some
wonder. From the year 1763 forward the College of New Jersey was
intimately associated with a preparatory school called by President
Finley " an Appendage " of the college. Announcement of the acad-
emy appeared in 1763.52 In 1764 the school was opened.

"Quincy, Hist. Har. Univ., 1840, II, 124-5.

« Ibid., 498, Resolutions in full.

48 See Chap. Ill, p. 43.

48 Broome gives the dates at which various new subjects at the beginning of the nine-
teenth century were definitely placed in the college entrance requirements as follows : Up
to 1800 the requirements were Latin, Greek, and arithmetic. Geography was added in
1807 ; English grammar, 1819 ; algebra, 1820 ; geometry 1844 ; ancient history, 1847.
Broome affirms that all of these were first required by Harvard, except English grammar,
in which Princeton took the lead, and adds that the ambiguous term " grammar " appears
in the Williams College catalogue for 1795. A Hist, and Crit. discussion of Col. Adm.
Req., Columbia Univ. Cont, XI, 30-62.

■ Murray, Hist, of Ed. in N. J., 57, Murray's statement is " South English Grammar."
61 See discussion (p. 40) of the requirements of the University of North Carolina.

■ Pa. J., Nov. 10, 1768 ; N. J. Arc, XXIV, 266.

EARLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 39

The Publick is hereby notified, that as soon as a competent Number of
Scholars, offer themselves, an English School will be opened, under the Inspec-
tion of the President of the New-Jersey College, as an Appendage to the same :
in which is proposed to be taught the English Language grammatically, and
that the Boys, when found capable, be exercised in Compositions, as well as in
pronouncing Orations publickly.63

In 1769 another extremely suggestive advertisement of Princeton
appears. President Witherspoon not only advertises that the college
course gives " Remarks in the Grammar and spelling of the English
Tongue " 54 but he also adds, speaking of candidates for admission,
u Scholars should also be well acquainted with . . . spelling in Eng-
lish Language and writing it without grammatical errors." 55 While,
of course, this is not a definite entrance requirement, with examina-
tion, it is an indication that the president of Princeton as early as 1769
was pointing the way to such a requirement. Parenthetically it may
be remarked that Witherspoon states almost exactly the proper test
of grammatical accuracy, the test to which colleges did not officially
arrive until one hundred years later, when, in 1873, Harvard's new
admission requirements were formulated. For all the intervening
time the entrance test consisted of examinations in formal English
grammar, which, for a large part of that century, meant the slavish
repetition of pages and pages of rules.56 The point of present inter-
est, however, is that in this statement of President Witherspoon, in
1769, we see in embryo, at least, the college-entrance requirement of
1819 ; indeed, that of the present-day requirements. Princeton, like
Columbia and Pennsylvania, had been in touch with English as a
language study for nearly 25 years before the Revolution.

The diary of Solomon Droune, of the class of 1773 in Rhode Island
College (Brown), testifies that he began the study of English gram-
mar in 1771 : " Commenced Hammond's Algebra and British Gram-
mar in December," B7 his sophomore year. The inference is strong
that his class was studying " The British Grammar," but, unfor-
tunately, we have discovered no corroborating testimony. The college
laws of 1783 show that in the sophomore year were studied Lowth's
Vernacular Grammar, Rhetoric, Ward's Oratory, and Sheridan's Lec-
tures on Elocution,58 and an extract from a letter of the president the
following year advises a Mr. Wood, if he desires to enter the sopho-
more class, " to study with great attention Lowth's English Grammar,

» Ibid., May 31, 1764 ; N. J. Arc, XXIV, 370.

A grammar school " as a nursery for the college " had been estaoilshed under Presi-
dent Burr, but not until 1764 was " it judged proper that an English school should be also
established for the sole intention of teaching young lads to write well, to cipher, and to
pronounce and read the English tongue with accuracy and precision." Order of trustees,
quoted, McLean, op. cit, 529.

•* Pa. J., Mar. 2, 1769.

w N. Y. J. or W. M., May 1, 1769.

- See Chap. V.

,T Quoted by Bronson. Hist. Brown Univ., 102.

" Law§ in full, Ibid. 508-18.

40 ENGLISH GKAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

& Sterling's, or Turner's Rhetoric as preparatory to Ward's Oratory
& accustom himself to compose in English." 59

In the charter of Queen's College (which became Rutgers in 1823),
first drafted by Dutch Reformed ministers in 1766 and finally granted
in 1770, we find positive indications of the trend of the time toward
grammatical instruction in English. It is especially significant as
coming from a body of men who might have been supposed to favor
a language other than English. The charter provides —

There shall always be, residing at or near the college, at least one professor,
or teacher well versed in the English language, elected . . . from time to time,
and at all times hereafter grammatically to instruct the students of the said
college in the knowledge of the English language; . . . provided also that all
records shall be in the English language and no other : 60

The grammar school of Queen's, in the first announcement in 1771,
advertised that " Mr. Frederick Frelinghousen . . . teaches the Eng-
lish Language grammatically." 61

In all the preceding discussion there is one State which has not
been mentioned — North Carolina. In 1794 the University of North
Carolina was opened with a program of English studies very far in
advance of any college in the country before 1800.62 In 1794 the
charges for tuition were as follows:

For Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping, $8.00 per annum. For Latin,
Greek, French, English Grammar, Geography, History and Belles Lettres, $12.50
per annum. . . .

Here is an institution starting up in a sparsely settled and largely
unlettered frontier district. As the historian says, half of those who
presented themselves were unprepared for college classes.63 There-
fore after the first year the institution was divided into the prepara-
tory school and the university proper.

In 1795, according to the statutes, the course of study in the prepara-
tory school was as follows :

(a) The English Language, to be taught grammatically on the basis of
Webster's and South's Grammar.64 (&) Writing in a neat and correct manner,
(c) Arithmetic, with the four first rules, with the Rule of Three, (d) Reading
and Pronouncing select passages from the Purest English authors, (e) Copying
in a fair and correct manner select pages from the purest English authors. (/)
The English Language shall be regularly continued, it being considered the
primary object, and the other languages but auxiliaries. Any language except
English may be omitted at the request of the Parents.

Under the professorships in the university, English was continued.
" Khetoric on the plan of Sheridan, . . . The English Language,
Extracts in Prose and Verse. Scott's Collections."

59 Ibid., 103.

60 Clews, op. cit, 343.

61 N. Y. J. or G. A., Oct. 24, 1771.

M Battle. History of the Univ. of N. C, Vol. I, 50 et seq.

88 Ibid., 65. «* Means Lowth's Grammar.

EABLY APPEARANCES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 41

, Here is a college which in 1795 dares to proclaim that English is
" the primary object," that " other languages are auxiliaries," and that
" any language, except English, may be omitted." The college did
not grant the A. B. degree, however, except for Latin and Greek, and
the historian tells us that afterwards the university " degenerated into
the purely classical type." But the important point is yet to be noted.
In 1795, when the English program for the academy was inaugurated,
a statute of admission to the college seemed to prescribe English ; it is
thus cited by Battle :

The Students who passed approved examinations on the studies of the pre-
paratory school were admitted upon the general establishment of the University.
There was also an entrance examination in Latin, but the candidates were not
required to translate English into Latin.85

English grammar, on the basis of Lowth and Webster, was the first
study of the preparatory school. A university statute prescribing
entrance examinations in the preparatory subjects was passed in 1795.
This appears to be a clear case of an entrance examination in English
grammar 24 years before 1819, the date which Broome assigns to
Princeton. An error of a quarter of a century shows how dangerous
it is to generalize on data derived only from a few well-known
institutions.

One further point as to the relations of colleges to English gram-
mar needs is noted. We have seen that Hugh Jones, professor of
mathematics in William and Mary, published the first grammar on
record, written in America but printed in London in 1724. That
book was called "A Short English Grammar, An Accidence to the
English Tongue." The description of the contents of the book 66
seems to indicate that it was deficient in syntax and was devoted
largely to preparation for oral work. This, too, would certainly be
in keeping with the early date at which it was published. The entire
discussion of this chapter and of the following chapter indicates that
grammar, as well as written composition and literature, grew up with
and possibly out of declamation, oratory, disputations, and the vari-
ous branches of oral composition. Hugh Jones's " English Gram-
mar " is in strict accord with this hypothesis.

Students of the history of education know that the colleges of
America have usually been compelled to emphasize curricula of a more
elementary grade in their early years. It was not true of Harvard,
perhaps, because the founders of Harvard were the men who dictated
the laws of 1642 and 1647 requiring a fitting school in every town of
100 families. Moreover, these schools existed before the law of 1647.
We have just seen Princeton under the necessity of establishing a
, — B __

65 Battle, History of the Univ. of N. C, Vol. I, 96.
••Meriwether, Col. Cur., 151-3.

42 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

school of lower grade than the college itself and that the new Uni-
versity of North Carolina felt compelled to do so. In the following
chapter we shall see the University of Pennsylvania grow from an
academy and maintain that academy as a fitting school until well
into the nineteenth century. Western colleges growing up amid fron-
tier conditions in the past 75 years also labored under this necessity.

The fact that between 1775 and 1825 the older colleges of the East
felt called upon to give instruction in the freshman or sophomore
years in English grammar 6T carries with it several inferences : First,
that there was a growing interest in the mother tongue, which com-
pelled colleges established under the exclusive classical regime to
enlarge their curricula, and, further, induced colleges founded in the
last quarter of the eighteenth century to incorporate English as a
language from the very beginning; second, that, as college students
were entering without the ability to speak and write grammatical
English, that subject was not adequately taught in the lower schools.
In short, the attitude of colleges toward grammar before 1800 shows
that there was need for the new subject; that the call for it was posi-
tive; that this must have been in order that the subject might be
introduced into the older institutions ; and that the lower schools were
not meeting the need.

"Princeton used Lowth in 1793. Snow, op. cit., 109. Yale used Lowth, 1774-1784,
Webster, 1792, and Murray in succession before 1800. Ibid., 79, 91, 128. The College
Rhode Island used the same texts in the same order. Ibid., 109, 111, 113.

Chapter III.
INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO THE CURRICULUM.

So customary is it to look to Massachusetts, and New England gen-
erally, for pioneer movements in American colonial education that it
is refreshing to find other colonies taking lead in giving to the ver-
nacular a prominent place in the curriculum. We have seen that the
first American writer of a textbook in grammar was the Virginian,
Hugh Jones, who published his book in London in 1724 ; that Noah
Webster was also antedated by Johnson, 1765, and by Byerley, 1773,
both of New York, and by Curtis, 1778, of New Hampshire. The first
school of authentic record we have found teaching the mother tongue
" grammatically " was in Wassamacaw, S. C, taught by William
Waterland. Moreover, the middle colonies, headed by Pennsylvania,
were apparently two decades in advance of New England in having a
respectable number of private schools placing grammar on a sec-
ondary-school footing. To New York (King's College and Colum-
bia) belongs credit for the first thorough devotion to, the mother
tongue before 1800, and to North Carolina for the first entrance
examination in the subject.

New England, finally, can not claim the first secondary school using
English curricula to exert the widest influence in advancing vernacu-
lar instruction throughout the colonies. To Pennsylvania, to the
Philadelphia Academy, and to Benjamin Franklin, belong this honor,
the greatest of all. The present chapter gives an account of this insti-
tution, with special reference to what it taught, the influence it
exerted, and the motives which prompted it.

1. FRANKLIN'S ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1750.

The story of this institution begins with the year 1739. The evan-
gelist, George Whitefield, preached in Philadelphia to enormous
crowds but was excluded from most of the churches of the city.68
Opposition of religious sects met him on every side. The hostility
naturally drew to his support inhabitants who were free from nar-
rower religious prejudice, among them Benjamin Franklin. White-
field's avowed mission — the founding of an orphanage — tinctured his

68 He did preach in Christ Church, but was opposed by other churches. Wood, Hist, of
TJ. of P. (1834) in Mem. Hist. So. of Pa., Ill, 178.

44 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

fervid discussions and turned the attention of his listeners to the unsat-
isfactory status of education for the unfortunates of the city.69 In
1743, amid the fervor of Whitefield's agitation, Franklin drew up a
" scheme " for a new school in Philadelphia.70 The scheme was not
further promulgated for six years, danger of war with France and
Spain and other troubles having intervened.71 But in 1749 Franklin's
scheme became the " Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in
Philadelphia." Interest here centers in the English curriculum pro-
posed by the author and inaugurated by the trustees. Extracts from
the proposals, together with the constitutions and the program of the
English school, furnish evidence as to what really was the curriculum
which dared to lift its head among the Latin-grammar schools of the
period.

PROPOSALS."

The proposals state that the rector should be —

a man of good Understanding, good Morals, diligent and patient, learn'd in the
Languages and Sciences, and a correct pure Speaker and Writer of the English T*
Tongue. ...

All should be taught to write a fair Hand, and swift, as that is useful to
All

The English Language might be taught by Grammar; in which some of our
best Writers, as Tillotson, Addison, Pope, Algernon Sidney, Cato's Letters, &c,
should be Classicks : the Stiles principally to be cultivated, being the clear and
concise. Reading should also be taught, and pronouncing, properly, distinctly,
emphatically ; not with an even Tone, which under-does, nor a theatrical, which
over-does Nature.74

To form their Stile they should be put to writing Letters to each other, making
Abstracts of what they read ; or writing the same Things in their own Words :
telling or writing Stories lately read, in their own Expressions. All to be revised
and corrected by the Tutor, who should give his Reasons, and explain the Force
and Import of Words, &c.

89 In April, 1740, Franklin attended a meeting in which Whitefleld preached of the
orphanage he intended to found. Franklin advised the founding of the institution in Phila-
delphia, urging that materials and workmen would be lacking in the wilds of Georgia.
This was the occasion on which, Franklin tells us, after taking out various smaller sums,
" I finally empty'd my pocket wholly into the collector's bowl, gold and all." (Autobiog-
raphy, Griffin ed., 173.)

To the preaching of Whitefleld may be ascribed part of the emphasis in earlier Penn-
sylvania legislation upon charity schools. This, together with the wide divergence of
religious beliefs, caused Pennsylvania to be one of the last States to establish a free system
of schools, in 1833.

70 1743 was the year that Charles Fostesque advertised his private school in Philadelphia,
teaching " English in a grammatical manner.' Pa. G., Dec. 1, 1743.

71 Autobiography, op. cit , 178-89.

72 Proposals given in Smyth, Life and Writ, of Benjamin Franklin, II, 386 et seq.
78 All words italicized are so written in the proposals as printed in Smyth.

T* This savors so strongly of Hamlet's speech to the players that we are surprised not to
find Shapespeare in the list of " Classicks."

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 45

To form their Pronunciation, they may be put on Declamations, repeating
Speeches, delivering Orations &c. ; the Tutor assisting at the Rehearsals, teach-
ing, advising, correcting their Accent, &c.TB

THE CONSTITUTIONS.

These were drawn up by a committee of two, consisting of Tench
Francis, attorney general, and Franklin. The constitutions stipulate
for instruction " in the dead and living Languages, particularly
their Mother Tongue, and all useful Branches of liberal Arts and
Science " 76 and provide :

An ACADEMY for teaching the Latin and Greek Languages, the English
Tongue grammatically, and as a Language, the most useful living foreign Lan-
guages, French, German and Spanish: As matters of Erudition naturally flowing
from the Languages . . . (The subjects named in the Proposals.)

The English Master shall be obliged, without the Assistance of any Tutor, to
teach Forty Scholars the English Tongue grammatically, and as a Language."

Concerning this plan, remarkable for its emphasis upon the Eng-
lish, Franklin states that his desires " went no further than to procure
a good English education." 78 But his friends insisted upon a classi-
cal school. In both the documents just cited the sections dealing with
the classics are distinctly subordinated and have the appearance of an
afterthought, inserted after the original draft to appease Franklin's
coworkers. For himself, the founder was resolved " to nourish the
English school by every means in my power." 79

PROGRAM OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.

The Academy and Charity School, with Franklin as the first presi-
dent of the trustees, was established in 1750,80 with the following
vernacular program in the English school :

First Class:

English Grammar, rules.

Orthography.

Short Pieces, such as Craxall's Fables.

"To this vernacular instruction are added geography, chronology, ancient customs,
morality, history, natural history, history of commerce, mathematics. Also, "All intended
for Divinity should be taught the Latin and Greek; for Physick, the Latin, Greek and
French; for Law, the Latin and French; Merchants, the French, German and Spanish; and
though all should not be compell'd to learn Latin, Greek or the modern foreign Languages ;
yet none that have an ardent Desire to learn them should be refused ; their English,
Arithmetick, and other studies absolutely necessary being at the same time not neglected."
Smyth, op. cit., 394.

78 Montgomery, Hist, of U. of P., 46.

" Ibid., 47, 48.

78 Sparks, Works of Benjamin Franklin, II, 133.

79 Ibid., 134.

80 Franklin, writing from memory, in 1789, gives the date as 1749, but the date of con-
veyance of " The New Building " was Feb. 1, 1750. Advertisement of the Academy in Pa.
G., Dec. 11, 1750,

46 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Second Class:

Expressive Reading.

Grammar, parts of speech and sentence structure.

The Spectator.
Third Class:

Speaking.

Elements of Rhetoric, Grammatical errors corrected.
Fourth Class:

Composition, Letter writing, little stories, accounts of reading.

Letters, Temple and Pope.

Speaking and Oral Reading.
Fifth Class:

Composition, Essays in Prose and Verse.

Oral Reading and Speaking.
Sixth Class:

English Authors, Tillotson, Milton, Locke, Addison, Pope, Swift, Spectator
and Guardian.

Some classes always to be with the writing master and with the Arithme-
tick master, while the rest are in the English school.81

THE CAREER OF THE ENGLISH PROGRAM.

.,

Study of the proposals, the constitutions, and the program indicate
a secondary school, with the vernacular as its central study, as preten-
tious as any of the Latin schools of the period.82 The phrases " Eng-
lish Tongue grammatically " and " as a Language," many times
repeated, are eloquent with that purpose. Franklin was no advocate
of the classics as the backbone of public instruction. He affirmed " the
still prevailing custom of . . . teaching the Latin and Greek lan-
guages ... I consider ... in no other light than as the chapeau bras
of modern literature." 83 Indeed, the English program contains
almost every element of the best modern secondary-school practice in
the vernacular : Grammar ; composition, both oral and written ; decla-
mation ; and literature in the form of the classics of the mother tongue.
Other studies are grouped around the English. It seems safe to
believe that never before in America, and not for quite half a cen-
tury later, was any such complete English program projected. It was
almost 100 years in advance of its time. Like the leaders of most
reforms, Franklin as champion of the mother tongue in secondary
education seems to stand alone. The institution he founded was soli-
tary. He was as distinctly a pioneer in education as he was in science.

At first the English school prospered. In the opening year the
English and the Latin schools together numbered more than 100

81 The English program is compiled from Franklin's Works, Sparks, op. cit., II, 125-32.

82 It may be safer to say that the English school was intended to be on an equal footing
with the Latin. In reality, it never was. In the very beginning the Latin master received
a salary of £200, the English master £100. The former had more assistance than the latter.
The time of the English master was often employed in the Latin school. Smyth, op. cit.,
X, 12.

83 Smyth, op. cit., II, 159,

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 47

pupils.84 In 1752 there were above 90 scholars in the English school
alone, according to a minute of the trustees.85 The first English
master was David James Dove, who had taught grammar in Chi-
chester, England, for 16 years and who was in Franklin's estimation
;< a clean, pure Speaker and Writer of English." 86 Commenting on
the early success of the English program, Franklin says :

He (Mr. Dove) had a good Voice, read perfectly well, with proper Accent and
just Pronunciation, and his Method of communicating Hahits of the same kind
to his Pupils was this. When he gave a Lesson to one of them, he always first
read it to him aloud, with all the different Modulations of the Voice that the Sub-
ject and the Sense required. These the Scholars, in studying and repeating the
Lesson, naturally endeavour'd to imitate; 8T and it was really surprizing to see
how soon they caught his Manner. ... In a few Weeks after opening his
School, the Trustees were invited to hear the Scholars read and recite. . . . The
Performances were surprizingly good . . . and the English School thereby
acquired such Reputation, that the Number of Mr. Dove's pupils soon mounted
to upwards of Ninety, which Number did not diminish as long as he continued
Master, viz., upwards of two years.8'

Unfortunately the high-water mark of the English school's pros-
perity was reached only two years after its founding. In 1753 Ebe-
nezer Kinnersley was elected successor to Dove, who devoted himself
to a private school in Philadelphia which he had begun while still
active in the Academy.89 Kinnersley, who had collaborated with
Franklin in experimenting with electricity,90 was evidently more pro-
ficient in science than in teaching English, for under him the English
school began a rapid decline. In the words of Franklin, " the Trustees
provided another Master . . . not possessing the Talents of an Eng-
lish School Master in the same Perfection with Mr. Dove," whereupon
" the school diminished daily and soon was found to have about forty
scholars left.91 The Performances ... in Reading and Speaking

84 Quoted from sermon on education by Rev. Richard Peters, 1750, preached at the open-
ing of the Academy, Montgomery, op. cit., 141.

85 "There being above ninety Scholars in the English School, and Mr. Dove having
declared he found it impossible duly to instruct so great a number without another assist-
ant." . . . Quoted from the minutes, Dec. 10, 1751, ibid., 144.

88 Letter to Samuel Johnson, Dec. 4, 1751. Ibid., 513.

It is significant that Franklin endeavored by every means in hie power to secure Samuel
Johnson to become the English master. Ibid., 508.

87 This is to-day considered extremely bad practice in teaching oral English. " Imitate
me," " this is the way to speak the passage," is indeed the quickest way to secure results
and doubtless enabled Dove to give public exhibitions within a few weeks after beginning
his work. But direct imitation is bad pedagogy.

88 Smyth, op. cit., X, 14. 15.
•» Pa. G., Aug. 29, 1751.

80 Kinnersley is said by Provost Smith to have been " the chief inventor of the electrical
apparatus, as well as the author of a considerable part of those discoveries in electricity
published by Mr. Franklin, to whom he communicated them." Amer. Mag., Oct., 1758 ;
cited, Wood, Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa.. Ill, 191. Kinnersley published " Experiments in Elec-
tricity," 1764, in Philadelphia. Cat. of Public. Prior to 1775, in Trans, of Am. Antiq.
Soc, II, 570. Evans, op. cit., 3, 390.

81 The trustees' minutes, Mar. 5, 1757, give the number of students: Philosophy school,
12 ; Latin, 60 ; Mathematical.. 22 ; English, 31. Montgomery, op. cit., 282-4,

48 ENGLISH GEAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

. . . discontinued and the English School has never since recovere
its original Reputation." 92

The retrogression of the English school and the prosperity of the
Latin school receives Franklin's bitter condemnation. He himself
was absent from Philadelphia much of the time for nearly 30 years,
and, as he says, " in the course of 14 years several of the original Trus-
tees, who had been disposed to favour the English School, deceased,
and others not so favorable were chosen to supply their places."93
The whole story of the process by which, to use his words, English
" was starved out of the Scheme of Education " is set forth by him in
" Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders of
the Academy in Philadelphia," published near the end of his life, in
the year 1789.94

Almost pathetically he bemoans the failure of the English school :

I am the only one of the original Trustees now living, and I am just stepping
into the grave myself. ... I seem here to be surrounded by the Ghosts of my
dear departed Friends, beckoning and urging me to use the only Tongue now
left us, in demanding That Justice to our Grandchildren that our Children has
[Franklin's defective grammar] been denied."

He cites numerous instances of prejudice on the part of the " Latin-
ists " to kill the English curriculum, running it down until in 1763
" Mr. Kinnersley's time was entirely taken up in teaching little boys
the elements of the English Language (that is, it was dwindled into
a School similar to those kept by old Women, who teach Children
Letters) ." 96 In another connection Franklin asserts :

>The Latinists were combin'd to deny the English School as useless. It was
without Example, they said, as indeed they still say (1789), that a School for
teaching the Vulgar Tongue, and the Sciences in that Tongue, was ever formed
with a College, and that the Latin Masters were fully competent to teach
English.*7 . . . Thus by our injudiciously starving the English Part out of our
Scheme of Education, we only saved £50 a year. . . . We lost Fifty Scholars
which would have been £200 a year, and defeated, besides, one great End of the
Institution.*8

In spite of " Neglect, Slights, Discouragements, and Injustice "
(Franklin's words)99 the English program never entirely died. On
July 23, 1769, a resolution passed the board that " after the 17th of

92 Smyth, op. cit., X, 15.

»*Ibid., 16.

•* Ibid., 9-31.

95 Smyth, op. cit., X, 29.

98 " The State of the English School was taken into consideration and it was observed
that Mr. Kinnersley's Time was entirely taken up with Teaching little Boys the Elements
of the English Language." Min. trustees, Feb. 3, 1763. Montgomery, op. cit., 247.

97 Smyth, op cit, X, 16, 19.

88 Franklin appears to overstate the opposition. About the only part of the English
program actually starved out was the public exhibitions, of which Mr. Dove had made so
popular a showing. It is interesting to note that the branch which hung on most tenaciously
was English grammar.

•» Smyth, op. cit., 27,

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 49

October next, Mr. Kinnersley's present Salary do cease, and that from
that time the said School . . . shall be on the following Footing, viz
. . ." (the fees of the pupils to go directly to the English master, who
is guaranteed no salary.1 But on August 1, 1769, this action was
reconsidered, and on July 21, 1771, " the Provost was desired to adver-
tise for a Master able to teach English Grammatically, which seems
was all the English Master was now required to teach, the other
Branches originally promised being dropt entirely." 2 So the hard
struggle for English went on. Franklin's protest of 1789 did very
little good, and in 1810 Dr. John Andrews, provost of the University
of Pennsylvania, affirmed that the principal master of English was
not called professor, but master; that this work was considered below
college grade and subordinate to it. The provost thought that on the
death of the then incumbent at the head of the English school it
would be abolished altogether.3

In the preceding chapter has been described the course of the Eng-
lish program in King's College and Columbia, under the leadership
of Samuel Johnson and of William Samuel Johnson. In strange con-
trast to the " starving " process which well-nigh killed English
instruction in the College and Academy of Philadelphia we find the
admirable courses offered in 1792 by the president of the New York
institution. The writer feels that the main cause of this startling
contrast was due to the influence of Provost Smith, a Latinist, in
Pennsylvania, as contrasted with the influence of the Johnsons, mod-
erns, in King's College. But an even more important cause may have
been the difference in the internal organization of the two institutions.
In Columbia the college curriculum was organized by departments
on an equal footing. In Pennsylvania there was a philosophical,
an English classical, and a mathematical school, each with its almost
distinct program, attempting to grow up side by side. The Colum-
bia organization seems to give each department a better oppor-
tunity to demonstrate its worth, being essentially a college, rather than
a university, organization. Obviously, English had a better chance to
raise itself to independent dignity in Columbia. It would be interest-
ing to speculate as to the course in the vernacular in Pennsylvania had
Franklin been able to continue his personal supervision.

2. THE INFLUENCE OF THE PHILADELPHIA ENGLISH SCHOOL.

Such, then, was the precarious and inglorious career of English in
Franklin's school, a career which belied the purpose of the founder and
was entirely inconsistent with the success of the first few years. To

1 Ibid., 23. a Ibid., 27. » Battle, Hist. Univ. N. Car., I, 50.

60258°— 22 4

50 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

CU-

affirm that this institution, prematurely attempting to raise verna<
lar instruction to the dignity of the Latin, was an influential leader of
that movement may seem foolhardy.

At the outset we face the fact that the Philadelphia Academy
stands, in point of time, at the head of a list of private schools which,
between 1750 and 1765 in Pennsylvania and adjoining colonies, pro-
posed to teach the English language. This fact, taken alone, may
have been merely a coincidence. Indeed, from the viewpoint of
chronological priority, Fortesque's school in Philadelphia (1743)
itself precedes Franklin's. Only in connection with facts cited below
is the Philadelphia Academy to be accorded the position of leadership.

Next may be cited the striking fact that the distinctive phrases
describing the central purpose of the new venture — " English Tongue
grammatically " and " English as a language " — many times repeated
in the published announcements and documents of the Franklin
school, were used verbatim, or nearly so, by many schools immediately
succeeding it in the colonies. This also, considered alone, may not be
significant of leadership. It may be said with justice that in 1743
Fortesque, in Benjamin Franklin's own paper, used the equivalent
phrase — " English in a grammatical manner " 4 — and that Water-
land in South Carolina, in 1734, used almost the equivalent phrase —
'* English being taught grammatically." 5 There is no attempt to
ascribe to Franklin the authorship of these phrases or of the ideas
back of them ; 6 but both schools were obscure and private ventures,
without the direct advocacy of a powerful publication like Frank-
lin's Philadelphia Gazette. Moreover, the auspices of the Franklin
school, warmly supported as it was by such men as Attorney General
Francis and various colony officials, with a board of 24 trustees of
leading men of the city, were likely to secure all publicity possible in
1750-1760.

The place to look first for the academy's direct influence on other
schools is in Philadelphia, its immediate environs, and in towns of
close proximity. Within 10 years several other schools in Phila-
delphia were teaching English grammatically.7 Three of these were

* Pa. G., Dec. 1, 1743.

Charles Hoole, 1660, may have been the inventor of the phrase. He says : " He that
would be further instructed how by teaching English more Grammatically, to prepare his
Scholars for Latine, let him consult Mr. Poole's English Accidents, and Mr. Wharton's
English Grammar ; as the best books that I know at present." Bardeen's reprint, 80.

6 S. Car. G., Nov. 16, 1734.

• The comment might also be made that the phrases cited are the natural expressions of
any schoolman desiring to emphasize English grammar in his curriculum. This comment
has a certain validity ; but " English tongue grammatically " and " English as a language "
are truly distinctive phrases. The New England schoolmasters employed much more
prosaic expressions, such as " according to the Rules of Grammar," " understanding the
English Grammar, " learn the English Grammar," and the like. See Chap. II.

1 1n 1759 the number of dwelling houses in Philadelphia was 4,474, indicating a popula-
tion of between 20,000 and 30,000. R. Proud, Hist. Pa. in N. A., 1770, 279.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 51

established by David James Dove, the first English master of the
academy. The first was a girl's school, in 1751, in which English
grammar was taught. For devotion to this school and neglect of his
duties in the academy Dove was dismissed in 1753. 8 The second was
in 1758, when Dove and Riley professed to teach " English Language
according to the most exact rules of grammar." 9 The third may have
been a continuation of the second, when in 1759 Dove and Williams
announced " Grammatical Knowledge of their (the pupils') mother
tongue, as is laid down in Greenwood's Grammar." 10 Two years
later Dove became master in Germantown Academy, where he taught
" English as a Language." " Dove had taught English grammar 16
years in England ; it might therefore be fairer to attribute the credit
for the teaching of English to direct influence from the mother
country. There can be little doubt that Dove in these schools was
endeavoring to make capital of the popularity he had enjoyed at the
academy.

In 1754 another Philadelphia school was projected by one John
Jones, " late assistant to Mr. Dove in the Academy."

[He] has opened his new School-House where . . . the English Tongue will be
taught ... to those, whose Parents request it, as a Language, and delivery in
the method pursued by that worthy Professor, Mr. Dove when in the Academy,
by which his Scholars made such a wonderful Proficiency, and he gained so
great a favor deservedly."

Referring to schools like Jones's and Dove's, we have also Franklin's
own testimony that the very failure of his plans in the academy
spread the instruction of English as a language. He says :

Parents, indeed, despairing of any reformation, withdrew their children, and
placed them in private schools, of which several now appeared in the city, pro-
fessing to teach what had been promised to be taught in the Academy; and they
have since flourished and increased by the scholars the Academy might have
had, if it had performed its engagements."

Evidence is not lacking that the neighboring colonies were aware
of the success of Franklin's school. For example, in 1754, while the
English school was still flourishing, an interesting communication
appeared in the Maryland Gazette, written by one who signed himself
f Philo Merilandicus," to this effect : " On inquiry it has been found
that there are (at least) 100 Marylanders in the academy in Phila-
delphia. . . ." 14 The writer laments the loss to Maryland of £5,000
sterling a year. He says also : " Vast sums are every year transmitted
to France, etc., for the Education of Young Gentlemen. . . ." He

» Pa. G., Aug. 29. 1751.

• Ibid., Jan. 12, 1758.

» Ibid., Aug. 9, 1759.

11 Ibid., Nov. 19, 1761.

u Pa. Q., Oct. 24, 1754.

18 Sparks, Franklin's Works, II, 149.

" In 1755 the academy had 300 students. Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 62.

52 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

■

;

expresses a wish to establish a college on the East Shore, and conceiv
ways and means for keeping within Maryland the money advanced as
aforesaid for the use of Pennsylvania.15 Here is positive evidence that
the academy in Philadelphia, which had the distinction of an Englis
program, was attracting attention.

Suggestion to the same effect is found in the will of one James Van
Horn, of Dover, East New Jersey, in 1761. He gives all his estate to
his sons John and James, u James to be given the best education the
Province of Pennsylvania affords, either at the Academy, or Mr.
Dove's English School." ie

If the Philadelphia College and Academy was attracting numerous
students from other colonies,17 there may be found in this fact a
motive for the action taken in 1763 by the College of New Jersey, a
near rival. President S. Finley in that year announced the opening
of an English school as an appendage of the college, with an English
program almost identical with the academy's.18

The College of New Jersey, which thus seems to have followed t
lead of the Philadelphia Academy in establishing an English scho
was itself influential in spreading grammatical instruction in the
mother tongue. It, too, was a cosmopolitan institution, drawing stu-
dents from the South, from Maryland and Virginia especially.

The influence of Princeton men who became teachers may be illus-
trated by the experience of Philip Fithian (Princeton, 1770-1772),
who became tutor in the family (plantation school) of the famous
Col. Carter, of Westmoreland County, Va. In his Journal and Let-
ters we find four entries relating to instruction in grammar. " The
Second Son is reading English Grammar ; " " Mr. Carter put into my
hands for the use of the School The British Grammar." 19 Fithian
evidently felt the need of renewing this subject, for we find this
entry a few days later in his journal : " I read Pictete, The Spectator,
Lambert, History of England, English Grammar, Arithmetic and
Magazines by turns." 20 The final entry perhaps indicates why
Fithian was so industrious in teaching Carter's children grammar:
" Mr. Carter is a remarkable man in English Grammar." 21

"Letter to Jonas Greene, Md. G., Mar. 21, 1754. Reprinted, Steiner, Hist, of Ed. in
Md., 29.

» N. Y. M., Mar. 9, 1761 ; N. J. Arc, XX, 541.

17 George B. Wood, writing in 1834, attests to the celebrity of the academy. " From this
period, 1757, the institution rose rapidly in importance. The extent and liberality of its
plan, conjoined with the excellence of its management, secured it the patronage of the
neighboring population ; and it soon acquired a celebrity which attracted numerous stu-
dents from distant colonies. Prom Maryland, Virginia, and the Carol inas it received much
support . . . many planters preferred it, for the education of their children, to the schools
of England." Wood, Hist, of Univ. of Pa., Pa. Hist. Soc, III, 185.

18 Pa. J., Nov. 10, 1763 ; N. J. Arc, XXIV, 266. See Chap. II, p. 27.
"Fithian, Jour, and Let., 55, 56.
»Ibid., 66.
» Ibid., 97.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 53

Kobert Cather's . School of Elizabeth Town, East New Jersey, in
1762, was modeled on exactly the same English plan as the Phila-
delphia Academy. He opened a boarding school with a varied
curriculum :

as also, Boys to be instructed in the Beauty and Propriety of the English Tongue,
which shall be taught as a Language; the best English Authors shall be read
and explained ; the Art of Rhetoric, or Oratory, shall be taught with Care and
Exactness, Specimens of the Boys' Proficiency therein shall be given every
Quarter.22

This is the exact Philadelphia scheme.

In 1767 a school called the Somerset Academy was founded in
Somerset County, Md., whose curriculum also bears a striking resem-
blance to the Franklin institution. The following reference is found
in a letter written by a " Gentleman on his Travels " (Wm. Rind),
who had visited the Philadelphia Academy in 1769 :

Erected about two years ago, ... in the county of Somerset, Maryland, ... a
house sixty-two feet in length and twenty feet in breadth; . . . employs two
Masters of Liberal Education [who teach] . . . the rudiments of English
Grammar, . . . Spelling, . . . writing, . . . Latin and Greek, . . . and various
branches of the Arts and Sciences. . . . Great pains are taken to cultivate the
Art of Speaking, which is necessary in order to shine in the Senate, at the bar,
and in the pulpit.23

The last sentence of the foregoing quotation, with its stress upon
speaking, is highly suggestive of the Franklin curriculum. That
seems to have been the most popular part of Dove's work, Franklin
especially commending the excellence of the public programs given
by Dove's pupils.

Similar stress is placed upon speaking in several notices of schools
included in this section. It may not be out of place to note again that
the original u scheme " was drawn up in Philadelphia in 1743, while
the city was still under the spell of Whitefield's eloquence. Franklin,
himself a modest speaker, may have had in mind the power of White-
field when he prescribed in his first paragraph that the rector of his
school must be a " correct pure Speaker and Writer of the English
Tongue," and directed " making Declamations, repeating Speeches
and delivering Orations." Indeed, in regard to grammar, his scheme
says merely : " The English Language might be taught by Gram-
mar." Perhaps at that time he was not convinced that English could
be taught " as a language "; he certainly was so convinced before the
proposals and the constitutions appeared in 1749.

The direct influence of the academy spread to a marked degree
through the efforts of students who became teachers in other colonies.
This is indicated by the evidence of Philo Merilandicus cited above.

"Pa. J., Apr. 1, 1762; N. J. Arc, XXIV, 21.
23 Va. G., Feb. 23, 1769.

54 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1860.

,

::

Influence spread in this way certainly in the case of Andrew D'Ell
cent and Alexander Alexander, who in 1766 announced a school in
Charleston, S. C, as follows:

Andrew D'Ellicent and Alexander Alexander, late from the College of Phil
delphia, beg leave to inform the Publick that they intend to open a School .
where will be taught the English, French, Latin and Greek Languages gra
matically, likewise writing, etc. . . . Young ladies may be instructed in the
English Grammar as to be enabled to speak and write their native tongue
with . . . Propriety. Boys who have a taste and talents for Oratory may be
taught rhetoric, and to pronounce Orations with due action and diction."

In 1757 a list of all the pupils enrolled in the Philadelphia Acad-
emy the preceding year includes the name of one Lindley Murray in
the English school.25 Wood, a University of Pennsylvania professor,
in his history of that institution, written in 1834, asserts that he has
no doubt that this is the Murray who wrote the famous Murray gram-
mars.26 Murray, who wrote in England, we know to have been an
American. If Wood is correct and Lindley Murray did actually
receive his first instruction in grammar at the academy, this in itself
would be a strong argument for the direct influence of the institution
on later schools and school practices.

There is no intention of exaggerating the influence of Franklin's
academy. Probably the schools and schoolmasters did not deliber-
ately follow the academy as a model. It is much more likely that
many of them were influenced by the numerous educational writers
whose works were widely circulated in America, the very men who
moved Franklin to his innovation. Responsive also, as was Franklin,
to the growing feeling of restlessness under the Latin curriculum as
unsuited to the intensely practical life of the Nation, many of the
schoolmen turned instinctively to the mother tongue. A discussion
of these broader agencies, which spread the vernacular instruction far
more powerfully than did the example of Franklin or of any institu-
tion, constitutes the following section.

The history of educational reforms shows that observation and
imitation of actual school practices, even more than the study of
educational theories, is the unrivaled moving force. To Melanch-
thon's school, to St. Paul's, to Yverdun, to the Boston Latin, to
Rugby, to Gary, schoolmen make pilgrimages, either literal or figura-
tive; then they go home to inaugurate these innovations for them-
selves. There is reason to suppose that this was a common procedure
in 1750 to 1775 ; 27 and the one school, above all others, which in loca-

** S. C. G., May 20, 1766. 25 List printed in Montgomery. Hist, of U. of P., 284.

16 Wood, Hist, of U. P., 186.

27 An interesting example of this, of the date we are now considering, and establishing
further the influence of the Philadelphia institution is the following : Rev. James Madison
was graduated from William and Mary in 1771, and nine years later became President of
that college. He is said to have introduced into William and Mary the curriculum of the
Philadelphia College and Academy. In 1785 he received the degree of doctor of divinity
from the University of Pennsylvania. Montgomery, op. cit., 263.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 55

tion, in point of time, in publicity, in prestige of foundation, was
most suited for such leadership was Franklin's English school of
1750. We believe that Robert Proud, in his History of Pennsylvania
in North America, written between 1770 and 1780, was right in at
least one respect when he said : " The College and Academy of Phila-
delphia ... is likely ... to become the most considerable of its
kind, perhaps in British America." 28

3. EDUCATIONAL THEORIES SUPPORTING GRAMMAR IN AMERICA

UP TO 1775.

Preceding sections presented schools and colleges teaching English
grammatically and the Franklin academy as having the right to be
considered the first leading secondary school with the English pro-
gram. Consideration now turns to an analysis of the educational
ideas which induced American schools to enlarge upon the few scat-
tered beginnings of grammar in the eighteenth century and to adopt
very widely at its close an English program with grammar as its
central study.

EDUCATIONAL TREATISES IN THE COLONIES.

Several educational "treatises widely known in England made th'eir
way into the American colonies before 1775. Prominent among these
were " Some Thoughts concerning Education," 1639, by John
Locke; 29 " British Education," by Thomas Sheridan, 1756; 30 " Obser-
vations for Liberal Education," London, 1742, by George Turnbull ; 31
" Dialogues Concerning Education," published anonymously, 1745,
by James Fordyce ; 82 and " Essays on Education, by Milton, Locke,
and the Authors of the Spectator," London, 1761 edition, by K.
Wynne.83

In 1747 Franklin advertised the works of Locke, Turnbull, and
Fordyce, and showing that he was himself interested in these books

28 Proud, op. cit., II, 281.

29 Advertised, Pa. G., Dec. 3, 1747, by B. Franklin ; B. N. L., Sept. 4, 1750 ; N. Y. M.,
Sept. 24, 1752 ; Conn. G., Apr. 12, 1755 ; Ga. G., Apr. 14, 1763 ; B. Ch., May 1768, etc.

8° Advertised, S. C. G. and C. J., Mar. 1, 1763 ; N. Y. M., Nov. 7, 1763 ; B. Ch., May 2,
1768; Va. G., June 10, 1773, etc.

The full title of Sheridan's book is " British Education ; or, the Source of the Disorders
of Great Britain, being an Essay towards proving, that the Immorality, Ignorance, and
false Taste, which so generally prevail are the natural and necessary Consequences of the
present defective System of Education, with An Attempt to show that a Revival of the
Art of Speaking, and the Study of our own Language, might contribute, in a great Measure
to the Cure of those Evils." By Thomas Sheridan, A. M., London, 1756 edition.

81 Advertised, Pa. G., Dec, 3, 1747, by B. Franklin; N. Y. G., Dec. 11, 1753; N. Y. M.,
June, 1775, etc.

83 Advertised, Pa. G., Sept. 22, 1747, by B. Franklin ; N. Y. G., Nov. 13, 1753, etc.

83 Advertised, N. Y. M., Sept. 30, 1765 ; N. Y. G. or W. P. B., Oct. 19, 1761 ; ibid., Feb. 11,
1771 ; ibid., Sept. 10, 1769, etc.

56 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

he quotes Locke extensively.34 What is more significant he drew up
his plan of English education in exceedingly close conformity to one
striking passage in Turnbull. No attempt is made to use the " deadly
parallel " ; 35 but the conclusion is inevitable that Franklin was thor-
oughly familiar with Turnbull. At any rate, every one of the main
parts of the academy's English program is advocated in the same
order as in TurnbulPs discussion. Both writers believe that gram-
mar, composition, declamation, oratory, and the study of English
classics are primarily for the cultivation of " stile," and to cap it all
the principal motive of each is regard for the various professions in
which the mother tongue is to be used.

THE BURDEN OF LEARNING LATIN.

Four more contentions are discernible in the educational treatises
which came to America in the eighteenth century.36 The first of these
is the burden of learning Latin. The revolt against the extreme hold
of Latin is a very old one, having as its earliest conspicuous cham-
pions Comenius, Mulcaster, and Milton. An idea of the unspeakable
grind transferred from John Sturm's Gymnasium to the sixteenth-
century grammar schools of England may be seen by a glance at
Sturm's curriculum. He required seven years to be spent on the
acquirement of a " pure Latin style," two to be given to " elegance,"
and five collegiate years to be passed in learning the art of Latin
speech, 14 years, with the ultimate goal of proficiency in writing and
speaking the Latin tongue.37

Comenius, the Bohemian educational reformer, 1592-1671, voiced
one of the earliest protests against Latin instruction like that of
Sturm. Comenius, to be sure, retained Latin as the most valuable
study, but he would first have the vernacular taught, then a neighbor-
ing modern tongue, then Latin, Greek, etc. He advocated as well
objective study of the natural world.38

Mulcaster, 1582, also raised his protest : " Is it not a marvelous
bondage to become servants to one tongue, for learning's sake, the
most part of our time . . . whereas we may have the very same
treasure in our own tongue, with the gain of most time. ... I love
Rome, but London better; I favor Italy, but England more; ... I
honor the Latin, but I worship the English." 39

Milton, in 1650, urges : " We do amiss to spend seven or eight years
merely in scraping together as much miserable Latin and Greek as

84 Franklin illustrated his " proposals " by extracts from Milton, Locke, Sheridan,
Walker, Rollin, Turnbull, " with some others." In Smyth, Life and Writings of B. Frank-
lin, II, 387, Franklin's quotations are given.

85 See Appendix B. The writer has seen no other suggestion that Franklin followed
Turnbull closely.

88 Nearly all the other writers cited follow Locke very closely.
8T Summary of Sturm's curriculum. Monroe, Hist, of Ed., 391.

88 Comenius, Great Didactic, Laurie, 115.

89 Elementarie, pt. 1 ; Quick, Ed. Ref., 300-2.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 57

might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year. . . .
These are not matters to be wrung from poor striplings like blood
out of the nose or the plucking of untimely fruit." He refers to the
prevalent instruction as " those grammatical flats and shallows, where
they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with lamentable con-
struction " and as " that assinine feast of sow-thistles and brambles,
which is commonly set before them as all the food and entertainment
of their tenderest and most docible age." 40.

The goals to which these early reformers strove were, first, knowl-
edge to be written in the vernacular; second, instruction in reading
and writing for the masses, in order that this secular knowledge, like
religious knowledge in the Bible, might be made accessible to all.

Before the eighteenth-century agitators began work English was
established in its elementary branches in the schools and books in
English teaching were widely printed; that is, the two goals of
Comenius, Mulcaster, and Milton were attained. Now began the work
of a second group of educational reformers, headed by the greatest
master of them all, John Locke. They led the attack upon the second-
line trenches of Latin and established the principle that for the masses
a vernacular education of a secondary grade is equivalent to a Latin
education of the same grade for a privileged few. To-day's fight is
for the third-line trench and over the question, shall the classics
remain as an important part of the curriculum because of the few
privileged to attain the highest culture ?

The newer leaders, headed by Locke, sound the same note, lament-
ing the heavy burden of the Latin-grammar program. Locke, in
1693, says:

When I consider what ado is made about learning a little Latin and Greek, how
many years are spent in it, I can hardly forbear thinking that the parents of
children still live in fear of the schoolmaster's rod. . . . How else is it possible
that a child can be chained to the oar seven, eight, or ten of the best years of
his life, to get a language or two?41

The Tatler of 1710 urges that masters should teach pupils to use
English instead of perplexing them with Latin epistles, themes, and
verses —

For can anything be more absurd than our way of proceeding; ... to put
tender Wits into the intricate maze of Grammar, and a Latin Grammar ; ... to
learn an unknown art by an unknown tongue; ... to carry them a dark round-
about way to let them in at the back door? "

Dr. Johnson, Franklin's friend, in the preface of his dictionary, said :
"A whole life can not be spent upon syntax and etymology, and even
a whole lifetime would not be sufficient." 43

40 Wynne, op. cit., 5-8.

41 Wynne, op. cit., 29 ; Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education.
« Tatler, IV., No. 234.

43 Johnson, Diet, of Eng. Language, I, preface, 13.

58 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

It may be worth while to dwell upon the influence of the Spectator
and Tatler,44 because Addison and Steele speak out boldly for English
grammar.

Addison and Steele enjoyed popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.
Says Steele:

I found . . . the principal defect of our English discipline to lie in the Initia-
tory part, which, although it needs the greatest care and skill, is usually left to
the conduct of those blind guides, Chance and Ignorance. ... I could furnish
you with a catalogue of English books . . . wherein you could not find ten lines
together of "common Grammar," which is a necessary consequence of our mis-
management in that province. . . . The liberal Arts and Sciences are all beauti-
ful as the Graces; nor has Grammar, the severe mother of all, so frightful a
face of her own ; it is the vizard put upon it, that scares children. She is made
to speak hard words that, to them, sound like conjuring. Let her talk intel-
ligibly and they will listen to her.

In this, I think ... we show ourselves true Britons, always overlooking our
natural advantages. It has been the practice of the wisest nations to learn
their own language by stated rules to avoid the confusion that would follow
from leaving it to vulgar use. Our English Tongue ... is the most determined
in its construction, and reducible to the fewest rules.

To speak and write without absurdity the language of one's country is com-
mendable in persons in all stations, and to some indispensably necessary. To
this purpose, I would recommend above all things the having a Grammar of our
mother tongue first taught in our schools. . . . Where is such grammar to be
had? ... It is our good fortune to have such a Grammar with notes now in
the press, to be published next Term.

In a footnote Wynne adds : " This, I suppose, was the English
Grammar published by John Brightland,45 with the approbation of
Isaac Bicherstaff, the edition of which was published 48 in 1726."
This reference to the Brightland grammar leads to the supposition
that Steele was the author.

ENGLISH THE LANGUAGE OF DAILY USE.

The second note, frequently found in the treatises on education of
the eighteenth century, is that English is the language of daily use.
This was the burden of the Tatler just cited. Locke also would have
grammar learned by those whose main business is with the tongue or
pen, but —

it must be the grammar of his own tongue ; of the language he uses ; ... it will
be a matter of wonder, why young gentlemen are forced to learn the grammar of
foreign and dead languages, and are never once told of the grammar of their
own tongue. . . . Nor is their own language ever proposed to them as worthy
their care and cultivating; though they have daily use of it, and are not

** Franklin undoubtedly drew his first interest in the teaching of English from his close
study and imitation of these, as narrated in his autobiography.
"Tatler, IV, No. 234.
48 Wynne, op. cit., 177-9.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 59

seldom . . . judged of by their handsome or awkward way of expressing them-
selves in lt.*T . . . And since 'tis English that an Englishman will have constant
use of, that is the language he should chiefly cultivate; ... to mind what Eng-
lish his pupil speaks or writes is below the dignity of one bred up among Greek
and Latin, tho' he have but little of them himself. These are the learned lan-
guages, fit only for learned men to meddle with and teach; English is the
language of the illiterate vulgar.48

A student " ought to study grammar, among the other helps of
speaking well ; but it must be the grammar of his own tongue . . .
that he may understand his own country speech nicely and speak it
properly ; and to this purpose grammar is necessary but it is the gram-
mar only of their own proper tongues" 49

In 1769, in the Boston Chronicle, Joseph Ward strikes the note of
English as of daily value to the masses as follows :

The subscriber has opened an English Grammar School in King Street. ...
The understanding the English Grammar is so necessary for those who have not
a Liberal Education, and as it will greatly facilitate the learning any other
Language, such a school is said by the Literati to be very much wanted in this
town. . . .M

In 1769 Kichard Carew asserts :

Whatsoever grace any other language carrieth in verse or prose, in tropes or
metaphors, in echoes or agonominations, they may all be lively and exactly
represented in ours. Will you have Plato's verse? Read Sir Thomas Smith;
The Ionic? Sir Thomas More; Cicero's? Ascham; Varro? Chaucer; Demos-
thenes? Sir John Cheke . . . Will you read Virgil? Take the Earl of
Surrey; Catullus? Shakespeare and Marlowe's fragment; Ovid? Daniel;
Lucian? Spencer; Martial? Sir John Da vies and others. Will you have
all in all for prose and verse? Take the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney.61

We have seen above that Franklin in his " proposals " stressed the
idea of " Regard being had for the several Professions for which they < ^
(the students) are intended." English is the instrument of trade, of
law, pulpit, and Senate Chamber. Locke pointed out that a man is
often judged by his skillful or awkward use of his native language.
Wynne's books spread the teaching of Locke, Milton, and Steele in
America, and Turnbull follows Milton and Locke with almost the
identical argument.

Milton said :

Tho a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues Babel cleft the
world into : yet if he had not studied the solid things in them as well as words
and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be estimated a learned man, as any
yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his own dialect only.62

«T Wynne, op. cit., 60-2.

» Sparks, op cit., II, 137-138. Cited by Franklin in his " proposals."

<B Footnote in Franklin's " Observations," Sparks, op. cit. ; also Wynne, 252.

60 B. G., Apr. 20, 1769.

61 Quoted, Watson, Beginnings, 11, from " Elizabethan Critical Essays," Gregory Smith,
2, 293.

M Wynne, op. cit., 4, 5.

60 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Locke expressed the obverse idea that " nothing can be more ridicu-
lous than that a father should waste his own money and his son's
time in setting him to learn the Roman language, when at the same
time he designs him for a trade." 53 Turnbull follows in the same
vein : " Few think their children qualified for a trade till they have
been whipped at a Latin School for five or six years to learn a little of
that which they are obliged to forget." 54

The demand for practical instruction is most vigorously demanded
by Turnbull as follows :

Can any one hesitate to choose whether that his son should early be acquainted
with men, manners, and things, or that he should early be a profound linguist.
. . . What man of sense . . . would not rather have his son at fourteen toler-
ably skilled in geography and history, acquainted with the true method of
unravelling nature, . . . and able to express truths of these classes with pro-
priety and taste, in his own language . . . though he know little Latin?55

Sheridan, in a reductio ad absurdum upon the utility of classical
learning, tells of the " ingenious and learned translator of Milton's
Paradise Lost . . . now starving on a poor curacy in a remote part
of the country. And shall many fathers expect that their sons will be
able to outdo him in learning, or have nobler opportunities of display-
ing it?"56

Thomas Byerley, author of the second grammar published in
America, 1779, in the same year set up a grammar school in New
York. In his elaborate advertisements, after setting forth the neces-
sity of giving up the study of Latin for the purpose of learning Eng-
lish grammar, he quotes Locke in the passage just cited above on the
futility of making a boy learn the Eoman language when he is at the
same time designed for a trade.57

Even more vigorously does William Watson speak of his school in
Charleston, S. C, 1769, " for the Instruction of Youth in the Eng-
lish Language . . . grammatically. . . . The utility of such an
undertaking is too obvious to need any Recommendation." He goes
on to say that Latin and Greek are of " little consequence to those who
spend their days in rural, mercantile, or mechanical Employments."
He dwells on the inutility of spending " six or seven years in the
study of dead languages. ... If knowledge can be obtained . . .
without the dry and tedious process ... it may not be a useless
attempt. . . . Such an attempt as this the subscriber humbly pre-
sumes to make." 58

One of the earliest notices of an English school is William Gough's,
a plantation school near Charleston, in 1742. "William Gough

63 Ibid., 46. Be Sheridan, op. cit, 222-3.

M Turnbull, op. cit., 4. <" N. Y. G. and W. M., Aug. 23, 1773.

"Turnbull, op. cit., 260. «» S. C. G., June 24, 1769.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 61

gives notice that he is now settled entirely at the Plantation of Mr.
James Taylor, and continues to teach the several most useful branches
of learning (in the English Tongue) according to the London Method,
whereby Youth may be qualified for Business by land or Sea." 59

THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDIZING AND PRESERVING THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

We have pointed out that the plans for Franklin's academy matured
while Philadelphia, and, indeed, the colonies at large, were under the
influence of Whitefield's oratory. The emphasis of the Philadelphia
program upon oral English may have received its immediate inspira-
tion from that source. But there was a far-reaching appeal for pub-
lic speaking of greater significance than the inspiration of any one
man. This larger appeal runs through the educational treatises which
both in England and in America led the eighteenth-century move-
ment for the vernacular. Indeed, the discussion which follows shows
that the movement to place vernacular on a par with Latin found its
early strength in two correlated arguments: First, that the cultiva-
tion of a style for pure speech would assist in formulating, standard-
izing, and preserving the English tongue; second, that in the new
world, with its conglomeration of tongues, the schools must make an
effort to keep the vernacular free from the influence of other lan-
guages and to establish English as the standard language of the new
land.

A pretentious elaboration of the first of these arguments is the
treatise of Thomas Sheridan. His large volume of 534 pages, dedi-
cated to the Earl of Chesterfield, prime minister and famous orator,
develops the thesis that a " Revival of the Art of Speaking, and the
study of our own Language, might contribute to the Cure of that . . .
Ignorance and False Taste, which so generally prevail." 60

In his address to Lord Chesterfield, Sheridan says : " The scheme
is : A design to revive the long- lost art of oratory and to correct, ascer-
tain, and fix the English Language." 61 In almost every chapter
Sheridan acknowledges his indebtedness to Milton, Swift, Locke, and
Addison. Out of the writings of these men Sheridan has judiciously
extracted those passages which champion the vernacular, especially
oral instruction in it.

Two postulates underlie Sheridan's argument: First, the causes
which stressed Latin and Greek dedicated so vast a portion of time to

69 S\ C. G., Feb. 13, 1742.

Gough does not advertise grammar. " Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic in all its
Branches " are his principal subjects. Before 1750, and, indeed in all the advertisements
up to 1775, arithmetic in all its branches, as an intensively practical subject, appears
almost invariably. The appeal of, immediate practicality, found effective in arithmetic,
gradually creeps into the announcements of English speaking and grammar.

60 Sheridan, op. cit., title page.

w Ibid., preface, VI.

62 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

the acquisition of skill in those languages and at the same time the
pupil's own was totally neglected and no longer of any force.

The learned languages are no longer the sole repositaries of knowledge;
. . . the English is become an universal magazine ... of all wisdom. . . . Add
to -this, that we have many excellent writers of our own, besides, the language
itself has been so much enlarged and improved. ... To state the account in
short between our forefathers and us, they shewed great wisdom and good sense
in making the learned languages the chief study in their days (time of Refor-
mation) because, however round about the way, knowledge was then to be
acquired in none other; and because our own, then poor and uncultivated, could
be in no other way enriched or refined. . . . M

English is the language most universally read by Englishmen."

The second postulate is that as yet, say in 1750, English had no
fixed standard. Sheridan complains of general " bad taste which is
allowed to prevail," both in writing and speaking, on the part of pub-
lic men, of " the amazing number of wretched pamphlets," and of
" those heaps of trash, which are constantly exposed to sale in the
windows of booksellers, like unripe fruit, greedily devoured by green-
sickness apetites, and which fill the mind with crudities." Quoting
Steele, Sheridan says : " I would engage to furnish you with a cata-
logue of English books . . . within seven years past . . . wherein
you could not find ten lines together of common grammar or of
common sense." 64

Upon these two postulates Sheridan constructs his plea that ora-
tory fixed the standards of the ancient languages and perpetuated
them ; that the other nations of Europe —

the French, Italians, Spaniards, etc., . . . after having enriched and illustrated
their several languages by the aids and lights borrowed from the Greek and
Roman, employed the utmost industry to refine, correct, and ascertain (make
certain) them by fixed and stated rules. . . . The English alone left theirs to the
power of chance or caprice ; insomuch that it is within a few months that even
a dictionary has been produced here.65 Whilst in all the others many excellent
grammars and dictionaries have long since been published."

Both the ancients and all moderns but the English studied their
own languages with respect to what is pure and correct in style and in
pronunciation.

What shall we say to our practice so contrary to that of polished nations . . .
(we) who take great pains in studying all languages but our own? Who are
very nice and curious in our choice of preceptors for the ancient and modern
tongues, yet suffer our children to be vitiated in the very first principles of their
own. Is it because that the knowledge of our language is so easily acquired,
that it can scarce be missed? This surely can not be said when it is universally

02 Ibid., 217-9.

63 Ibid., 228.

M Ibid., 227, Tatler IV, No. 230.

85 This refers to Johnson's Dictionary and fixes the date for Sheridan's first edition.

86 Ibid., 212-3.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 63

allowed that there are hardly any who speak or write it correctly. Is it because
we have less use for it than for any other? 6T

When we consider that after Greek and Roman languages were brought to a
standard of perfection, when their youth had the advantage of established
invariable rules upon which to found their knowledge; of able preceptors to
instruct and guide them; of the noblest examples and most perfect patterns
for their instruction ; . . . shall we who have none of their advantages, without
any pains or application expect to have a competent knowledge of one, which
in its present state is far more difficult to be learned than theirs? This omis-
sion in our education ... is wonderful.'58

And the supreme means of establishing this uniformity of fixing
and ascertaining the tongue is, according to Sheridan, the fostering
of the " ancient art of oratory " ; by this means " our Shakespeare and
our Milton " will not be suffered " to become two or three centuries
hence what Chaucer is at present, the study of only a few poring
antequarians, and in an age or two more victims of bookworms."
Sheridan completes his argument with the curious fallacy that the
orators of a nation are its sound philosophers ; that they perpetuate a
language; that upon them and their art depends the safety of their
nations.69

It is highly significant that Sheridan dedicated his work to Ches-
terfield, an eloquent orator of his day. Moreover, Chesterfield had
made a public proposal to the provost and fellows of the University
of Dublin, while he was viceroy of Ireland, " for the endowment of
proper lectures and exercises in the Art of Reading and Speaking." T0

The project failed. In his preface Sheridan comments upon an
innovation recently made in Eaton by Barnard and at Rugby by
Markham, by which, " amongst many other good customs . . . pro-
nunciation and the art of speaking are now made effectual points." 71
This appears to indicate that the English schools were not many years
in advance of the American.

Only one of Sheridan's arguments is likely to have had a strong
appeal in America. Americans had no literature of their own; they
were not primarily interested in the establishment of a standard
style of literature; the appeal for the preservation of the language
of Shakespeare and Milton was remote from the interests of the new
land. The main interest of Americans would lie in the substance of
Sheridan's appeal, not in the reasons for it. He wished to teach ora-
tory ; he eulogized public speech ; he lauded correct pronunciation and
fluent oral address. This would appeal especially to Americans, with
their democratic town meetings, their traditions of pulpit leadership,
and their necessity of oral communication in general. Moreover,

" Sheridan, op. cit., 195-196. ■ Ibid., preface, XVII.

«Ibid., 196-7. "Ibid., XIV.

"Ibid.. XXIX.

64 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

statesmanship in the local governments and provincial councils was
the goal of parents for their children. The profession of the law was
increasing in popularity, and in any and all lines of activity effective
speech was looked upon as a prime requisite.

Private schoolmasters were not slow to realize the popularity of
this appeal. Advertisements of the day are replete with it. For
example, " The boys learning oratory make orations every fort-
night " ; 72 "I intend teaching the English language with proper
accent and emphasis " ; 73 " parents . . . may depend on having their
children ... diligently instructed in grammatical English, with due
attention to emphasis, pause, cadence, and puerile declamation " ; 74
" weekly exercise of reading the English authors with propriety and
grace " ; 75 " the Boys, as soon as they are capable to be exercised in
pronouncing Orations " ; 76 " nor will the true pronounciation, the
proper stops, emphasis, accent and quantity be neglected " ; 77 " Pains
will be taken to form them early for Public Speaking " ; 78 " Great
pains are taken to cultivate the Art of Public Speaking, which is
necessary in order to shine in the Senate, at the bar, or in the pul-
pit " ; 79 bo}^s who have " a taste and talents for Oratory may be taught
rhetoric and to pronounce with due action and diction." 80 The first
advertisement of King's College (Columbia), 1754, added to the
learned languages " reasoning, writing, and speaking eloquently." 81

An exact expression of this idea, that neglect of vernacular gram-
mar caused incorrect speech, which had been taken verbatim from
Sheridan or paraphrased from him, is found in the announcement of
William Johnson, who set up an English grammar school on Union
Street, Charleston, S. C, in 1767. He says :

It is a common, but too well-grounded complaint that a grammatical study of
our own language seldom makes any part of the ordinary method of instructing
youth. ... To this neglect may justly be attributed the great incorrectness of
speech, observable amongst almost all ranks of people ... to remedy which
... is the point the proposer has in view.82

There was a growing realization that the Nation ought to have one
common language ; that the best national life could not obtain if Eng-
lish, German, French, Dutch, Scandinavian languages — not to men-
tion others — should each remain the speech of a portion of the people.
Moreover, the mingling of so many tongues must certainly result in

"Joseph Garner, Pa. G., July 3, 1765.

78 Mary McAllister, Pa. G., June 4, 1707.

"John Hefferman, Pa. G., Sept. 14, 1774.

75 Witherspoon, Princeton, N. J., Pa J., Mar. 2, 1769.

78 Jacob Giles, Mount Pleasant, Md., Md. G., July 19, 1765.

77 Grainmaticaster, Pa. G., Oct. 29, 1767.

78 James Thompson, Charleston, S. C, S. C. G., Dec. 10, 1772.

79 Somerset Academy, Maryland, Va G., Feb. 23, 1769.

80 Andrew D'Ellicent, Charlestown, S. C, S. C. G., May 20, 1766.

81 N. Y. G. and W. P. B., May 31, 1754.
83 S. C. G., June 15, 1767.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 65

the corruption of them all, and especially of the dominant one. the
English. It is certain that this feeling was present in the minds of
the authorities in the College and Academy of Philadelphia, inas-
much as Pennsylvania had an exceedingly composite population. In
1758 Provost Smith, the chief Latinist against whom Franklin
inveighs, wrote an article, which appeared in the American Magazine
in October of that year, entitled "Account of the College and Acad-
emy of Philadelphia." He says :

■Oratory, correct Speaking and Writing the Mother Tongue is a branch of edu-
cation too much neglected in all our English Seminaries, as is often visible in
the public performance of some of our most learned men. But in the circum-
stances of this province, such a neglect would have been still more inexcusable
than in any other part of the British dominions. For we are so great a mixture
of people, from almost all corners of the world, necessarily speaking a variety of
languages and dialects, that true pronunciation and writing of our own language
might soon be lost among us without such a previous care to preserve in the
rising generations.83

A schoolmaster of New York, advertising an English grammar
school in the consistory room of the French church, says : " The Eng-
lish Grammar, . . . the learning of it being indispensably necessary
in an English country, I intend to teach to all my scholars." 84

Benjamin Franklin himself voices this appeal:

Why should you . . . leave it (America) to be taken by foreigners of all
nations and languages, who by their numbers may drown and stifle the English
which otherwise would probably become in the course of two centuries the most
extensive language in the world. . . ."

It appears that we have now reached the heart of the primary cause
which forwarded the study of English grammar. A movement, in
the words of Sheridan cited above, " to refine, correct, and ascertain
(make certain) the English language by fixed and stated rules " is
essentially grammatical. Samuel Johnson's dictionary, and others,
standardized English diction. Sheridan spoke the truth when he
said that the English needed " the advantage of established and
invariable rules " upon which to establish and perpetuate the
language.

The very prevalence of illiteracy in the public and private speech
of the eighteenth century demanded the study of grammar. Granted
that the mother tongue was more useful and less laborious than Latin,
granted that it was desirable to speak and write well, granted that
Dil worth, Greenwood, Lowth, and the British Grammar had reduced
English to w established and invariable rules," it seems to have fol-
lowed with irresistible logic that the schools must teach English

"Montgomery, op. cit., 520-9.

M N. Y. G. and W. P. B., June 5, 1766.

88 Letter to Wm. Strahan, Passy, Aug. 19, 1785. Sparks, op. cit., II, 131.

60258°— 22 5

66 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

grammar. Hence we find that every one of the schoolmasters cited
in a previous paragraph as teaching oratory also taught grammar.
Are we not safe, then, in saying that English grammar came into
the curriculum primarily as a result of the popularity of the teaching
of public speaking and secondarily as the result of a desire to make
rising generations familiar with " fixed and stated rules"?

As a corollary, the study of English as a language came as an anti-
dote for the variety of languages spoken by early settlers, especially
in the middle colonies. It is perhaps more accurate to say that it was
an attempt to keep English the dominant language of the new
continent.

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE MASSES IN 1650 AND IN 1750.

Massachusetts and her sister colonies inherited the idea of educa-
tion for leadership. The grammar schools of England, prototypes of
the higher schools set up in New England by the laws of 1647 and
1650, were planned distinctly for an intellectual, educational, and
political aristocracy. The society from which the first settlers came
was distinctly a class society. Many of the Pilgrim Fathers and their
immediate successors from England came from the smaller landed
gentry in the mother country. Moreover, the first settlers, although
apparently possessing a democratic form of government, character-
ized in local affairs by the town meeting, were in reality controlled by
a relatively small group of leaders. These men, as we have seen, were
clergymen, but their authority and influence extended over almost
every aspect of life. To perpetuate this leadership Harvard College
was founded only eight years after the settling of Massachusetts Bay.
To the college, with its inherited curriculum of the classics, must be
sent the more promising youth, prepared either under the private
tutorship of some clergyman or in a suitable school. This is the origin
of the grammar school in America.

Given a grammar school, some means must be provided for the
preliminary education considered necessary for entrance. This was
provided either by dame schools or by the reading schools or by gram-
mar schools. Along with this idea of higher education for leadership
there existed a second idea. This was that all citizens must be taught
to read the Scriptures and to understand the capital laws of the
country. The idea of universal education grew out of a combination
of these two purposes. Briefly, universal education in 1650 meant
universal ability to read, possibly to write and cipher, and widespread
opportunity to train leaders. •

By the middle of the next century a somewhat different idea of
universal education was dawning. Various causes had reduced the
importance of religious leaders. The rough life of the new continent

I

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. 67

d brought out native qualities of leadership, undeveloped by educa-
tion. The ancient classics did not hew the forests, blaze pathways
into the wilderness, nor fight back Indians. A Benjamin Franklin,
forced at 13 to forego the higher schools of Boston, by sheer native
merit had made himself an influential man. Many lesser Franklins
had raised themselves in various settlements. Just as on the Ameri-
can frontiers of the early nineteenth century a vigorous and robust
democracy seemed to produce and develop Jacksons and Lincolns, so
100 years earlier kindred causes were at work in New York, Penn-
sylvania, Maryland, and the rest. No longer did it count primarily
what a man knew. What he could do was far more important. In
short, after 1650, 100 years of frontier life had demonstrated that

i suitable leaders were forthcoming in all aspects of life, except possibly

! the ministry, irrespective of a classical education.

If this be true, when the frontiersmen of the eighteenth century
found themselves victors in the first severe struggle with privations
and established in somewhat settled communities, they began again
to think of education.86 Their uncouth manners and dress were like
their intellectual life and their speech — strong, but coarse. A desire
for refinement grew apace, if not for themselves, at least for their
children. In addition, new professions and occupations came into
prominence as the communities became more stable. All these newer
professions were the outgrowth of the new country itself, and, like
the needs which called them forth, they were practical, everyday
man-to-man occupations. Still further, as always in a new land,
statesmanship offered an attractive field.

All of these causes had grown out of the soil. Unschooled men
controlled public opinion. This type of society, living intensely in
the present, both ignorant and scornful of the past, craved an educa-
tion that would furnish direct help in everyday life. A vernacular
education of a higher order than reading and writing, including the
r practical branches of mathematics," the modern languages, history,
geography, and, above all, a mastery of the English tongue, was the
outcome. In short, the ideal of universal education retained in 1750
its central idea of 1650- — equal opportunity for all ; but there had come
in a noteworthy enlargement of it. In 1750 no American was pre-
destined for a high rank in life; out of the masses themselves were
to come the leaders; a practical education for all was to open the way.
On the crest of this wave the mother tongue was carried to the fore-
most place in American education.

••Franklin, Autobiography, 177.

68 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN" AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.

Several lines of investigation have been advanced to enable us to
answer the questions : When, where, why, and by whom English gram-
mar made its first appearance in the curricula of American schools.
Conclusions reached are as follows:

1. Textbooks in English grammar do not seem to have been
imported until about 1750. Dil worth's was published in England in
1740 and had its first American reprint in 1747.87

Dilworth's was introduced primarily as a speller. After 1750 there
is considerable evidence that Greenwood's and several other British
grammars made their way into the colonies.

2. There were at least two grammars written and published in
America before the [Revolution — Johnson's and Byerley's. Consid-
ering the rush of American texts in grammar after 1784,88 this early
scarcity is strong negative evidence to the effect that attention to
grammar was relatively insignificant before the appearance of Web-
ster's first book in 1784. In addition, seven grammars by English
authors were reprinted in America before 1784. Our estimate places
the number of texts before Webster's, both native and imported, at 10.
Of these Dilworth's was the only one available for the schools in
large numbers. Dilworth's " New Guide," although primarily a
speller, deserves the name of the first American textbook in English
grammar.

3. A respectable number of private schools, of which we have men-
tioned 60, some of them called English grammar schools, were offer-
ing courses in " English, as a language " by 1775. These schools began
to appear before 1750 ; they were most numerous in the middle colonies,
in the regions neighboring to Philadelphia Academy, where Frank-
lin's program of the vernacular struck a plane never reached before.
The New England colonies, with the classics more firmly intrenched,
resisted the innovation for two decades after the middle colonies had
adopted it.

4. A careful consideration of Franklin's plan leads to the conclu-
sion that this English school, preceding any general importation or
publication in America of textbooks in grammar, deserves the honor
of setting a positive example of a full vernacular program of secon-
dary grade and of being imitated by masters tired of the old type of
schools. Therefore the year 1750 is selected as the date when the
higher branches of the vernacular, including grammar, entered seri-
ously into American education. To Benjamin Franklin, in this, as in
many other respects, America owes a debt of gratitude. As his experi-
ments in science antedated by decades general school instruction in

87 Wickersham, in Pennsylvania, is in error in assigning this date as 1757. Wickersham,
Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 197.

88 See Chap. IV, p. 80.

INFLUENCES ADDING GRAMMAR TO CURRICULUM. G9

.them, so his experiment in vernacular education was more serviceable
as an example and a model than as an actual accomplishment.

5. Representative curricula of colleges and secondary schools show-
ing the earliest appearances of grammar are in accord with the infer-
ences reached above. Before 1750 curricula do not show grammar.
After 1750 to 1790 first, private schools ; second, colleges ; third, pub-
lic schools, seem to have followed Franklin's lead. In fact, the col-
onies effected the independence of their schools and colleges from the
exclusive hold of the classics contemporaneously with their political
independence.89 The latter separation was itself not a sharp breaking
off ; similarly the struggle for the supremacy of the vernacular as the
supreme study in the schools was long protracted. The traditions of
Latinized instruction, which almost routed Franklin's English pro-
gram, although they could no longer keep the vernacular in the back-
ground throughout the Nation at large, now did the next best thing — ■
they Latinized the methods of teaching English grammar. To a
discussion of this Latinizing process in methods we now turn. If the
entrance of grammar was an arduous struggle, its emancipation from
Latin methods was little short of a titanic one.

6. In answer, then, to the question, When ? the answer is 1750, with
due reservation for a few obscure earlier efforts. Where? In the
middle colonies, headed by Pennsylvania. Why? As the core study
of an English program to supplant the classical program for students
fitting for practical life. By whom? By Hugh Jones, the first
American grammarian ; by Waterland, who first taught grammar in
an American school; by Franklin, who projected the model English
program ; by William Samuel Johnson, first president of Columbia,
the first American to write a grammar published in America and the
first college official to put English on a par with the classics in a
college curriculum.

This is a far cry from the credit which has hitherto been awarded
to Noah Webster and New England.

89 Brown in his " Making of Our Middle Schools " states that the growth of nationalism
and national literature had little effect on the schools ; that " it took the Romantic Move-
ment and the American and French Revolutions to give the mother tongue an assured
position in the program of instruction." Mid. Sch., 188. To the present writer this
appears to be only a part of the truth ; it is possibly a post hoc ergo propter hoc. It
seems more accurate to say that in America all revolutions, political, educational, and
possibly religious, were largely due to the same fundamental causes. In each there is
revolt against outside authority, revolt against established traditions, and a determina-
tion that the individual and the nation have a right to live, not in the past but in the
future, a vital, active, aggressive life.

Chapter IV.
THE RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775.

The period immediately after the Revolution marks the well-nigh
universal adoption of English into the curricula of American school
Earlier sections have indicated that the time was ripe. Many success
ful experiments had been made in private schools; the Latin cur
riculum, with its apparent unfitness for the intensely practical life of
the new continent, was becoming more and more unpopular; for a
considerable number of years colleges had been teaching grammar,
composition, and oratory. In fine, irrespective of the Revolution, the
time had arrived when a rapid spread of the subject was to be
expected. And just as the new national life of England in the six-
teenth century, with the accompanying pride in its self-sufficiency,
brought forth a vigorous demand for the vernacular, so the national
independence of America cooperated powerfully with other causes in
transferring generally to the public schools the higher branches of
the vernacular. The fact is that increased attention to the English
language is the most significant change that occurred in the curricula
of the schools after the States began to recover from the turmoil and
disruption of war.

1. THE LEGISLATIVE RECOGNITION OF GRAMMAR.

The entire history of education in New England up to the end of
the eighteenth century seems to have been preparing the way for the
laws which, shortly after the Revolution, placed English in the cur-
riculum and almost, if not quite, on a par with Latin. The Latin
curriculum especially was increasingly unpopular. Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New Hampshire each passed a series of laws with
increasing fines for failure to keep open the prescribed schools,90 indi-
cating a failure of school spirit in New England.91 This wTas referred

90 In 1647 Massachusetts levied a fine of £5 (Rec. Co. Mass. Bay, II, 203) ; in 1671 the
fine was increased to £10 (ibid., IV, second vol., 486) ; in 1683 towns of 200 families were
fined £20 (ibid., V, 414) ; in 1692 the fine for failure to keep an elementary school was
increased to £10, but the penalty for a grammar school was not altered (Acts and Res.
Pro. Mass. Bay, 1, 63) ; in 1701 the fine was imposed on towns proportionally for the time
they were delinquent (ibid., 470) ; and in 171S the fine was increased to £20 for towns of
150 families, £40 for towns of 200 families and £50 for towns of 250 families (ibid., II,
100).

The series of increasing fines in Connecticut begins in 1650 (Rec. Col. Conn., 1, 521)
and continues in 1677 (ibid., II, 307-8), in 1678 (ibid., Ill, 9), and 1700 (ibid., IV, 331).

For New Hampshire see Laws of New. Hampshire, Prov. Period, I, 561, 337, 358.

n Martin, Evolution of Mass. Sen. Sys., 85.

70

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 71

to in the election sermon of 1762 by Rev. Thomas Shephard, in which
he laments especially the decay of the Latin schools preparatory for
Harvard.92 While it is true that some of these laws fined towns for
failing to support English schools, the main inference is that the
Latin schools, set up under the early laws by a university generation,
were too advanced for primitive communities successfully to maintain
in operation.

This being the case, many towns found that the best way to com-
ply with the requirements for both Latin and elementary schools was
to combine them ; that is, to provide a schoolmaster qualified to give
instruction in both the classics and the elementary branches of the
vernacular. Records of so-called grammar schools in many towns
indicate that this combination was effected. For example, Salem in
1677 " agreed with Mr. Eppes to teach all such scholars ... in y*
English, Latin and Greek Tongue " ; 93 Nearly 100 years later, in
1752, the same town found it necessary to vote that each of the boys
u who go to the grammar school must study Latin as well as read and
write and cypher." 94 In 1691 Cambridge voted to engage a school-
master " to teach both latten and english and to write and sipher," 95
and in 1679 Watertown agreed with Richard Norcros to teach for
three months only " Iattin schollurs and writturs . . . and the other
8 munths . . . both Iattin and inglish schollurs." 96 Other towns
showing the combination of Latin and English schools were Dedham,
1667; 97 Plymouth, 1725 ;98 and Braintree, 1690, which provided

n Felt, Ann. of Salem, 433.

M Relation between the Latin and the English program is interestingly shown in the
history of the schools of Salem. In 1667 records of the town show one school for both
branches (Felt, op. cit., 434) ; in 1713 there were separate schools called the English and
the Latin schools (ibid., 442) ; in 1743 the town voted to combine the two under a master
and an usher (ibid., 447) ; this act was revoked three years later, 1746 (ibid.). In 1752
the town was compelled to justify the existence of a Latin-grammar school by a special
act requiring that every boy, a pupil there, must study Latin as well as reading, writing,
and arithmetic (ibid., 448). In 1796, as a natural consequence of the unpopularity of
Latin manifested in the preceding order, for the first time the records show the English
master made a peer of the Latin master both in title and salary. The town voted that
each English master have a salary of £150 and "find ink" and that the Latin master
have £130 (ibid., 456). In 1801 notice is published that writing, arithmetic, English
grammar, composition, and geography are to be taught in the grammar school besides
Latin and Greek (ibid., 458). In other words, the Latin-grammar school is now made
over into an English school, with the classics secondary. It is curious to find that in
Salem English grammar was not added to the curricula of the English schools, although,
as we have seen, it was added to the grammar school in 1801. In 1816 this provision
was made also for the English schools to supply " a grammatical acquaintance with their
native tongue" (ibid., 464), and finally, in 1827, the Latin and the English high schools
of the town appear to be on a par (ibid., 474). This struggle of the two programs in
Salem is suggestive of what may have taken place in many other towns in the course of
150 years.

MIbid., 448.

95Rec. Town Cambridge, 1630-1703, II, 296.

96 Watertown Rec, I, 137.

OTRec. Town Dedham, 1659-73, 133.

MRec. Town Plymouth, II, 232.

72 ENGLISH .GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

" Master to be agreed with as will be willing to Teach english as well
as Latten, and also to Teach wrighting and Cyphering." "

Both the legislative efforts to compel towns to maintain Latin
schools and the efforts of the towns themselves to stress the vernacular
rather than the Latin indicate a leaning toward the State laws which,
in the decades .immediately following the Revolution, gave English
an equal legal standing with the classics. These laws may be said to
fructify the tendencies of the previous 150 years. The makers of the
Massachusetts law of 1789 and corresponding laws of other States,
which will be cited, realized that a renewal of educational enthusiasm
must center around the national tongue, eloquent testimony to the
fact that the study of English " as a language " had advanced very
rapidly since its first feeble beginnings.

In 1789 Massachusetts required that " every town . . . containing
two hundred families . . . shall be provided with a grammar school
master . . . well instructed in the Latin, Greek and English Lan-
guages." This school was to be kept for 12 months. Every town of
150 families was to keep a similar school six months ; every town of
100 families, an English school for 12 months; every town of 50
families, an English school for six months ; that is, " every town . . .
containing fifty families . . . shall be provided with a schoolmaster
... to teach children to read and write and to instruct them in the
English language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent
behavior." * Moreover, the statute allows selectmen to maintain
mixed schools if they prefer. This, for example, is what Braintree
did in 1790.2

Martin points out that by this act 120 towns out of 270 in Massa-
chusetts were relieved of the necessity of keeping a Latin school.3 In
1825 Massachusetts relieved all towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants of
the Latin school.4 In short, between 1789 and 1825 compulsory Latin-
grammar education may be said to have passed ; English schools, with
the English curriculum, including English grammar, had been
substituted.

Boston, pursuant to the law of 1789, completely reorganized her
schools. A manuscript copy of " The System of Public Education,"
bearing the signature of John Scollay, chairman of the board of
selectmen, under date December 1, 1789, was in the possession of
jenks when he wrote his " Sketch of the Boston Latin School." This
manuscript indicates how prominent a place was assigned to the vari-
ous branches of the vernacular in the Boston schools. The center of
the system was a classical grammar school, for entrance to which two

w Braintree Town Rec., 1640-1693, 598.
1 Perpet. Laws of Com. Mass., 1799, II, 39.
8 Braintree Town Rec, 1640-1793, 598.
•Martin, Ev. of Mass. Sen. Sys., 85.
4 Laws of Com. of Mass., X, 558.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 73

prerequisites are indicated. The boy must have reached the age of 10
years and must have been " previously well instructed in English
Grammar." In addition, there were three writing schools and three
reading schools, in which children of both sexes were to be taught to
" spell, accent, and read both prose and poetry, and also be instructed
in English Grammar and Composition." In the reading schools
textbooks include the Holy Bible, Webster's Spelling Book, The
Young Ladies Accidence (Caleb Bingham's elementary grammar),
and Webster's American Selections. It is also ordered that " the
upper Class in the Reading Schools be instructed in Epistolary
Writing and other Composition." 5

It is not asserted here that the Massachusetts law of 1789 made
' English grammar compulsory,6 but that this law, as those of several
other States, was enacted in response to a demand for increased atten-
tion to vernacular instruction. In Massachusetts English grammar
was specified in the law of 1835. r

The Vermont laws of 1797 and 1810, while they do not mention
grammar, do nevertheless stress the vernacular.8 Virginia in 1796
enacted a similar statute,9 and Delaware, in 1796, defines a " good
English Education," prescribing " the English language, arithmetic,
and other such branches of knowledge as are most useful and neces-
sary in completing a good English education." 10 The regents of the
University of the State of New York, in 1793, in a report to the legis-
lature say : " We can not help suggesting . . . the numerous advan-
tages that would accrue . . . from the institution of schools . . . for
reading their native tongue with propriety . . . writing . . . arith-
metic. . . -11 The ultimate effect of these laws was, of course, to stress
grammar together with the other " senior branches " 12 of English.
However, the effect of the universal turning to the vernacular, as it
bore particularly upon grammar, may be seen better in certain State
laws contemporary with the Massachusetts law which specifically
mention the subject.

The first State legislation to speak definitely of grammar appears
to have been the New York law of 1797, which provided " for main-
taining one or more free schools in the city of New York, in which
Scholars shall be instructed in the English Language, or be taught
reading, writing, the English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and

B Jenks, Cat. and His. Sketch Boston Latin School, 286 ; original document printed
in full.

6 Corey makes this mistake. Hist. Maiden, 631.

T Rev. Stat. Mass., chap. 23, sec. 1.

8 Laws State Vt., Wright, 1808, I, 181 ; ibid., Fay Davidson and Burt, 1817, III, 236.

• Stat, at Large of Va., Shepard, 1835, III, 5.

10 Laws State Delaware, S. and J. Adams, 1797, II, 1298.

11 Hist, and Sta. Rec. of the Univ. of N. Y., Hough, 66.

"This suggestive phrase is used in the charter for Potosi Academy, Mo., 1817. Lawa
Dist. Louisiana, etc., 1804-1824, Lush & Son, I, 519.

74 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

such other branches as are most useful and necessary to complete a
good English education." 1S

By 1827 the legislature, acting on repeated recommendations of the"
regents, was ready to pass the law making academies training schools
for teachers. The law of that year includes this declaration :

No student shall be deemed to have pursued the higher branches of an English
Education unless he shall have advanced beyond such Knowledge of common
vulgar and decimal arithmetic, and such proficiency in English grammar and
geography as are usually obtained in common schools.14

The first State-wide act definitely prescribing grammar seems to
have been the 1798 law of Connecticut :

Enacted, That any School Society shall have liberty ... to institute a School
of higher order ... to perfect the Youth ... in Reading and Penmanship, to
instruct them in the Rudiments of English-Grammar, in Composition, in Arith-
metic and Geography, or, on particular desire, in the Latin and Greek Lan-
guages, also in the first principles of Religion and Morality, and in general to
form them for usefulness and happiness in the various relations of social life.15

It is significant to note here that Noah Webster's grammars were
being published in Hartford between 1784 and 1790. The State law
of 1790 16 had retained the compulsory grammar schools in county
towns; but the law of 1798 abolished this obligation and gave any
school society the right to substitute, on a vote of two-thirds of the
inhabitants, English schools of a " higher order." Noteworthy, too,
is the suggestive phrase at the end of the law of 1798 — " in general to
form them (the pupils) for usefulness and happiness in the various
relations of social life." All these considerations indicate that in the
lawmakers' minds must have been a conviction that the traditional
curriculum must go, that schools of higher order must be retained, but
that in the nature of English schools grammar and composition were
the vernacular branches of the " senior ".order, and, finally, that use-
fulness and happiness in everyday life for all and not for a few
highly educated individuals was the supreme purpose of the new
English education. Brown very fittingly characterizes this revolution
in the curriculum at the end of the century as coming in response " to
the chaotic desire to study the vernacular " and prefaces that expres-
sive characterization by affirming that " in the study of English gram-
mar a means was found for giving vent " to this desire.17

The legislation of New Hampshire is especially enlightening con-
cerning the status of grammar. The first educational law after the
Kevolution, repealing all previous acts, provided funds, in 1789,
which —

"Laws State N. Y., 1797 to 1800, inclusive, IV, 42-3.

"Laws State N. Y., Croswell, 1827, 237.

15 Acts and Laws Conn., Hudson and Goodwin, 1796, 1802 edition, 483.

"Ibid., 373.

f Brown, Mak. of Mid. Sen., 234.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1*1*75. 75

shall be applied for the sole purpose of keeping an English Grammar School
. . . for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, except in shire and half shire
towns, in which the school by them kept shall be a Grammar School for the
purpose of teaching the Latin and Greek.18

This statute uses the term English grammar school, meaning merely
an English secondary school, not a school based on English grammar.
But it implied an effort to raise the English school to a higher dignity
than before, placing it in title at least on the same footing with the
Latin-grammar school. Obviously the real difficulty here is that the
lower branches of the vernacular do not possess the substance to
present the same drill in an English-grammar school as in a Latin.
In order to make the curriculum somewhat analogous and to justify
the claim of equal dignity, the higher branches of the vernacular —
grammar and composition — would be the next logical advance for the
English-grammar schools.

This step was taken by New Hampshire several years later, in the
law of 1808, ordering an extension of the curriculum of the English
school, and, what is even more significant, dropping the provision for
Latin schools in shire, and half shire towns " for the sole purpose of
keeping an English school . . . for teaching the various sounds and
powers of the letters of the English Language, reading, writing,
English Grammar, arithmetic, geography, and such other branches
of education as it may be necessary to teach in an English School." 19
To be noted here is the fact that most of the English grammars of
the day, of which by 1808 there were at least 49 20 published or used
in America, had orthography as their first section, usually defined as
" the various sounds and powers of the letters." This phrase in the
law, then, with the term English grammar, is certain proof of the
legal sanction of this branch in a secondary school which was clearly
intended to supplant the Latin school.

The law of 1808 goes still further. It provides that " no person is
qualified to teach unless he or she procure a certificate from some able
and reputable English Grammar school-master." 21 For schoolmis-
tresses it is demanded that " the literary qualifications of schoolmis-
tresses be required to extend no further than that they are able to
teach the various sounds and powers of the letters in the English
Language, reading, writing and English Grammar." 22 It is clearly
shown by the specifications concerning schoolmistresses that English
grammar was prescribed for elementary schools. Ultimately gram-
mar was placed in schools in almost all parts of the country which
were neither elementary nor secondary, but distinguished by the name

18 Laws State of N. H., Melcher, 1792, 276.

19 Laws State of N. H., Norris, 1815, 368.

30 A list of grammars was compiled but has been omitted in this publication.
» Ibid., 368.
22 Ibid., 369.

76 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

" grammar school." 23 As indicated above, it is quite often impossible
to determine whether a legal enactment follows or precedes the gen-
eral adoption of a subject into the curriculum. However; the general
absence of textbooks before 1790 24 makes it appear that the public
schools at least could not have attempted grammar very generally
before that date. But the private schools, as we have seen, were turn-
ing more and more to the English curriculum, following the tendency
seen in its beginnings between 1750 and 1775. Not infrequently dur-
ing the two decades before 1800 references are made in various acad-
emies to " Professors of English." 25

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

In the laws of two centuries there is discernible a marked tendency
toward the gradual elimination of a classical education. Geography
and history, with the feeble beginnings of science, were receiving a
little attention ; but around the English branches, especially grammar
and oral composition in the form of oratory, the new curriculum was
in formation. With the passing of Latin, seeming to many unrelated
to " usefulness and happiness in the various relations of social life,"
there was left little language study suitable for any but the most ele-
mentary instruction. In the Latin school the backbone of the course

23 It does not appear that many States specifically mention the incorporation of gram-
mar by State law in their curricula. The Louisiana law of 1826 placed in the primary
schools of New Orleans " a professor " to teach " the elements of the English and French
grammar." New Digest Stat. Laws of Louisiana, Bullard and Curry, 1842, I, 374. In
1834 Maine followed the usual practice of the day by providing that " no person shall be
employed as a schoolmaster . . . unless . . . well qualified to instruct youth in reading
and writing the English Language grammatically." Rev. Stat. State of Me., Smith & Co.,
1841, 169. The law makes the same requirement for schoolmistresses. Ibid.

24 Chap. IV, p. 77.

25 A case in point is the Delaware Academy of Wilmington, primarily a classical school,
which as early as 1786 had a " Professor of English." An extract from the curriculum
shows " English, Lowth's Grammar, Blair's Lectures in Rhetoric," and even " the higher
English classics frequently employed in exercises and compositions." References like this
to English classics before 1800 are extremely rare. Powell, Hist, of Ed. in Del., 45.

The grammar school of Brown University, in 1786, advertised " Greek, Latin and Eng-
lish Languages taught grammatically." Tolman, Hist, of Ed. in R. I., 35.

Apparently the best way to interpret an expression like this is to believe that gram-
matical instruction in the English language stands in exactly the same relation as gram-
matical instruction in the classical languages.

The Trenton, N. J., grammar school, in 1789, gave a certificate under the seal of the
corporation " to such scholars as shall have studied the English language grammatically."
In 1792 the price of tuition was put at $3 a quarter " for the English School and English
Grammar," and in 1817 the trustees recommended the use of " Lindley Murray's system
of teaching the English Language." Murray, Hist, of Ed. in N. J., 126.

A suggestive item indicating the way in which grammar spread is found in the story of
John Howland, father of the movement for public schools in Rhode Island. Appointed by
the city of Providence to draw up rules for the first schools established under the new
law, 1789, he went to Boston and there procured a copy of the rules establishing the
new school system of 1789 and secured also a list of the textbooks used under that
act. Howland says : " Up to this time I had never seen a grammar . . . but observing
The Young Ladies Accidence (Caleb Bingham's elementary grammar, Boston, 1785) was
used in the Boston schools, I sent to the principal bookseller in that town, and procured
one hundred copies for ours. The introduction of Grammar was quite an advance in the
system of education as it was not taught at all except in the better class of private
ichools." Powell, Hist, of Pub. Sch. Sys. in R. L. 17.

RAPID BISE OF GEAMMAE AFTEE 1775. 77

had been grammar; the term grammar, the methods of teaching gram-
mar, were ingrained. Latin grammar had stood for the next step
above reading and writing the vernacular. When, therefore, the
advocates of a practical English training found English grammar in
Dilworth and other texts, what was more natural than that they
should seize upon it as a suitable substitute for the next step above
reading and writing and spelling ? English they found reduced to the
same accidence as Latin; English rules were to be learned as the
Latin ; textbooks informed them on title pages that grammar was the
art of speaking and writing the English language correctly, and this
was their laudable desire for their children ; here is a suitable setting
in the vernacular program for grammar as the basic study. This
conviction made its way into legal sanction for English and English
grammar in the last decade of the eighteenth century.

2. THE FLOOD OF TEXTBOOKS AFTER 1784.

In the preceding chapter the number of textbooks available for
instruction in grammar before 1784 was shown to have been very
insignificant. With the exception of Dilworth's, primarily a speller,
certainly no single book was available in a large number of copies.
Therefore nothing is more effective in establishing the rapidly rising
popularity of the new subject after the Revolution than the flood of
grammatical textbooks which began to pour from the American press.

Even before the State laws at the end of the century paved the way
for a higher order of instruction in English these textbooks in gram-
mar began to appear. It is significant that in 1783 Xoah Webster, the
dean of American textbook writers, opened in Hartford, Conn., a
rhetorical school for the express purpose of teaching the English
language. It was here that he laid the foundation for his first gram-
mar, Part II of " The Grammatical Institute of the English Lan-
guage." 26 In Hartford also was framed, in 1799, the first State-wide
act specifically mentioning instruction in " the rudiments of English
Grammar." It is significant that this was the exact wording of the
subtitle of Webster's second grammar, published in 1790, " The Little
Reader's Assistant. Rudiments of English Grammar, Being an intro-
duction to the Second Part of The Grammatical Institute." This, too,
was published in Hartford.27 Of course, there is no certainty of
causal relation between Webster's instruction and his books and the
Connecticut law of 1798.

However that may be, Webster's " Plain and Comprehensive Gram-
mar," of 1784, was the first American textbook on the subject to attain

27 Evans, op. cit., 8, 105.

28 Love, Col. Hist. Hartford, 270.

78 ENGLISH GRAMMAK IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

wide circulation. Before 1792 it had passed through at least 10 edi-
tions.28 By 1807 29 this book, together with his three other treatises
on grammar, although by far less popular than his " Grammatical
Institute," enjoyed a wide circulation before Murray appeared in 1795.
Webster's success appears to have attracted other American writers
into the field at once, since at least 17 other works on grammar
appeared before 1795.30

Eleven of these 17 textbooks were unsuccessful, apparently none of
them enjoying more than two or three editions, including Kenrick's,
1784; Mennye's, 1785; Anonymous, 1789 (3d ed.) ; Ussher's, 1790;
Hutchins's, 1791 ; Humphries's, 1792 ; Tichnor's, 1792 ; Miller's, 1795 ;
Carroll's, 1795 ; and Dearborn's, 1795. Of the 17, two were Webster's
books mentioned above — " The Rudiments," 1790, and " The Young
Gentleman and Ladies Accidence," 1792. Harrison's, 1787, was an
English text reprinted in Philadelphia 31 and in its ninth American
edition before 1812 ; Ussher's, 1790, was also an American edition of
a London book of 1787 32 and had its third American edition in
Exeter, N. H., in 1804.33

Of the 17 books antedating Murray's (between 1784 and 1795) there
remain two which attained relatively wide use in American schools
before Murray's grammars appeared. Of these, the less important
was Caleb Alexander's "A Grammatical System of the English Lan-
guage," Boston, 1792. It passed through at least 10 editions before
1814.3*

Bingham's little elementary book of 45 pages appeared in Boston
in 1785 and in a very few years leaped into popularity in that city
and elsewhere. It was printed in at least 20 editions before 1815 ; 35
100,000 copies were sold.

28 Webster says-: "I published a grammar on the model of Lowth's ; . . . this work
passed through many editions before Murray's book appeared. ... I determined to sup-
press my grammar ; . . . a new work appeared in 1807." Webster's Dictionary, 1828,
preface, 3. Of this book Evans lists 10 editions before 1792, the first in 1784 (Evans, 6,
837), the last in 1792 (ibid., 8, 382). The number of editions was large. The writer, for
example, is using the sixth Connecticut edition, 1800, and the book was published by firms
in both Boston and Philadelphia, 1790 and 1787, respectively. Evans, S, 104, and ibid.,
7, 183. In both places there were several editions before 1800.

29 Webster's second grammar, " The Rudiments," 1790, passed through six editions in
the first two years, in Hartford, Albany, Boston, and Northampton. Evans, op. cit., 8,
105 ; 8, 233. His third book appeared in 1792, published anonymously under the title
" The Young Gentleman and Ladies Accidence, a Comprehentious Grammar of the English
Tongue," in Boston. The 1807 text was "A Philosophical and Practical Grammar." His
last grammatical treatise appeared as late as the year 1831, "An Improved Grammar of
the English Tongue," Barnard, Am. J. of Ed., XV, 569.

30 See Appendix A.

31 Evans, op. cit., 7, 121.
38 Ibid., 8, 98.

33 Am. Jour, of Ed., XV, 565.
3* Ibid., XIII, 212 ; Evans, op. cit., 8, 242.

35 Ibid., 218. The writer uses the nineteenth edition, Boston, 1813 ; the name Martha
Stebbins appears on the flyleaf.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 79

Bingham, a graduate of Dartmouth, 1782, had opened a private
school for girls in Boston in 1781 and had there begun what has been
called the first pretentious effort to teach English grammar in that
city.36 This statement ignores the earlier efforts to teach grammar,
some of which, as we saw above, antedated 1775, either through ignor-
ance of their existence or because they were insignificant as compared
with Bingham's. At any rate, " The Young Ladies Accidence." was
the result of Bingham's work in this school. It is interesting to
remember that Xoah Webster published anonymously in Boston, in
1790, an elementary book of approximately the same size as Bing-
ham's under the name " The Young Gentleman and Ladies Acci-
dence." Bingham, in 1789. accepted a position in the reorganization of
the Boston schools,37 and his grammar was adopted by vote of the
board as the official text in the writing schools.38

Of Webster and Bingham, William B. Fowle, editor of the Com-
mon School Journal, says:

No two men ever exercised more influence over the schools of this country.
. . . Webster's Grammar was but little used compared with Bingham's; but his
spelling book was far more extensively used. . . . The two authors divided the
field between them.**

Neglecting now the reproduction of grammars which we have
mentioned as preceding 1784, we find 17 entirely new books in the
field appearing in America before Murray's was introduced. Of these
17 certainly no fewer than 50 editions had been published within the
decade before 1795. We may conclude, first, that the impending flood
of grammars had begun to appear, and, second, that Brown is in
error in maintaining that " Linclley Murray's Grammar, published
in 1795, gave the first definite direction to this department of study." 40

But the grammars of Webster, Bingham, and the rest were insig-
nificant in their influence compared with the unexampled popularity
of Lindley Murray's, beginning shortly after 1795. This is the Lind-
ley Murray whom we saw as a boy enrolled in the English school of
the Academy and Charity School of Philadelphia in 1754.41 On
both sides of the Atlantic this man's productions were reprinted liter-
ally hundreds of times and were copied and abridged at least a score
of times by other authors. His most famous text was u English Gram-
mar, Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners," York, England,
1795. 42 He also prepared an "Abridgement of English Grammar,"

38 Wm, B. Fowle, Barnard's Am. Teachers and Ed., 70.
•T Ibid., 57.

^.Tenks, op. cit., 228.

39 C. S. J., 1850, 74.

<° Brown, op. cit., 234.
" See Chap. Ill, p. 54.
*» Barnard, op. cit., XV, 775.

80 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

1797 ; "An English Grammar, in Two Volumes," 1814, 2d edition ; and
" English Exercises," published first before 1802.43

An 1812 edition of the first book asserts that 35,000 copies of his
larger book and 50,000 of his "Abridgement " were being sold
annually in America. In 11 years the " English Grammar " passed
through 21 editions in England and twice that number in America,
while, the "Abridgement " had had 20 editions in England and 30 in
America. Murray's " English Exercises " were published frequently,
and his larger grammar had its fifth edition in New York in 1823.**
The larger books wTere adopted by many of the colleges in both
countries. It is asserted that his grammatical texts totaled over 120
editions of 10,000 copies each on the average ; that more than 1,000,000
copies of his books were sold in America before 1850.45

But Murray's influence can not be estimated by his own books
alone. At least 12 men prepared and published editions or abridg-
ments of his various works. Among them may be mentioned Bullard
1.797, tenth edition, by 1817; Flint, 1807, sixth edition, by 1826; Lyon
1811, fourteenth edition, by 1821 ; Pond, 1829, eighth edition, by 1836
Alger, 1824, fourth edition, by 1846; Fisk, 1821, third edition, by 1824
In this list are included also Russell, 1819 ; Booth, 1819 ; Cooper, 1828
Putnam, 1825 ; Miller, 1823 ; Blair, 1831 ; Bacon, 18l8 ; and Cheesman,
1821, third edition.46 In other words, a very conservative estimate of
the total number of Murray's grammars, including his own and his
followers' before 1850, is 200 editions, totaling between 1,500,000 and
2,000,000 copies.

Some idea of the rapid rise of grammar after 1784 may be gained
by examining the distribution of the 301 grammars written by Ameri-
cans and printed in America before 1850. 47 Distributed 'by decades
they are: .1760-1770, 1; 1771-1780, 5; 1781-1790, 9; 1791-1800, 18;
1801-1810, 14; 1811-1820, 41; 1821-1830, 84; 1831-1840, 63; 1841-
1850,66; total, 301.48

It is to be remembered that each unit in the foregoing represents a
new author or an entirely new book by an earlier author. As in the
case of the Murray grammars, we have seen the very large number of
editions issued. In other words, during the decade 1821-1830, in
addition to the 84 new books, many of which were printed several
times, there were also published at the same time a very large number
of editions of books wThose first editions had preceded 1821.

The above indicates that the desultory and scattered beginnings of
English grammar before 1775 sowed the seed which, after the Revo-

"Ibid., 776.

"Ibid., 775.

« Goold Brown, Am. Ann. of Ed. and Ins., 1832, 584.

49 Barnard, op. cit., 77(5-6.

47 This catalogue is omitted from this volume ; Appendix A has list of grammars to 1802.

48 Includes English books reprinted in America up to 1800.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 81

tion, began very rapidly to ripen into a harvest. The number of
new textbooks alone for the entire period averaged more than four a
year, and in the decade between 1821 and 1830 more than seven a year.

Only a rough estimate of the total number of editions can be made ;
many of the textbooks reached large circulation. Among the more
popular may be mentioned Comly's, 1804, which reached its fifteenth
: edition in 1838; 49 GreenleafV" Grammar Simplified," 1819, its twen-
tieth edition in 1837; Samuel Kirkham's "An English Grammar in
Familiar Lectures," 1823, its thirty-sixth edition in 1834, its fifty-
third edition in 1841 ; 50 Parker's " Progressive Exercises," 1823, pri-
marily a composition book, attained its forty-fifth edition in 1845.
Bullion's " Practical Lessons in English Grammar," 1844, reached its
thirteenth edition by 1851 ; William H. Wells's " School Grammar "
was in its twentieth edition in 1854 ; and in five years Peter Bullion's
"Analytical and Practical Grammar," of 1849, attained its thirty-fifth
edition.

A modest estimate, then, of the total number of editions attained
by the leading grammarians, including Murray and his followers, is
400. Others were frequently reprinted ; for example, Alexander's, 10 ;
Jandon's, 18 ; Brown's, 10 ; Hull's, 7, etc. Even estimating that many
had only one edition, the total number of American editions of gram-
mars before 1850 was in the neighborhood of 1,000.51

Still more difficult is it to estimate the number of copies turned out in
these 1,000 editions. The number of volumes printed in a few editions
is known. As early as 1772 and 1787 editions of 10,000 copies of Dil-
worth's " New Guide " were issued. This is hardly a fair criterion,
however, because Dilworth's included three textbooks in one and was
without serious competitors. In 1766 the firm of Franklin & Hall
was preparing an edition of Dilworth's consisting of 2,000 copies.52

One of the most used early texts was Bingham's " Young Ladies'
Accidence." Of this the 1792 edition included 4,000 copies.53 It has
been asserted that this book passed through 20 editions of 5,000 copies
on the average, aggregating 100,000 copies, before 1820.54 Kirkham
affirmed, in 1837, that his. book was selling at the rate of 60,000 a
year.55 In 1829, after being only six years off the press, Kirkham's
book was selling at the rate of 20,000 a year.56

48 The evidence as to the number of editions is taken from Barnard's list of American
textbooks in Am. J. of Ed., XIII, XIV, XV.

50 Barnard refers to a one hundred and tenth edition. Op. cit., XIV, 736 ; also Goold
Brown, Gram, of Gram., 28.

51 The actual count of known editions of books mentioned in the catalogue previously
referred to is 961. The evidence is acknowledged to be very incomplete. See Barnard's
lists. Am. J. of Ed., XIII. XIV, XV.

M Evans, op cit., 4, 52. 314, and 7, III.

88 Evans, op. cit., 8, 257.

M Small, Early N. E. Sch., 107 ; also Barnard, op. cit., XIV, 212.

55 Knickerbocker Mag., Oct., 1837. 66 Brown, op. cit., 28.

60258°— 22 6

82

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

If we may assume that 5,000 copies is a fair average for each edi-
tion, then approximately 5,000,000 copies of grammatical textbooks
were printed in America by 1850. In other words, two editions for
every large city were issued by that date.

3. THE EXTENT OF INSTRUCTION IN GRAMMAR IN REPRESENTA-
TIVE STATES, 1800-1850.

NEW YORK.

English grammar was a part of the curriculum of the academies
chartered by the regents of the University of New York from 1784,
the year of its beginning. Regents' reports for the years 1804 to 1807,
based on data obtained from the individual reports made by the
academies, show that during these years English grammar was taught
on a par with Latin grammar.57

Each year special mention is made of English grammar, together
with other branches usually considered parts of the English curricu-
lum, as distinguished from the Latin. Indeed, they are mentioned in
a larger number of academies than is the curriculum of the " dead
languages." 58

The academies have more significance than appears at first thought.
After 1821 the academies of New York were regarded as a source of
supply of teachers for the common schools of the State. In that year
the regents said : " It is to these seminaries that we must look for a
supply of teachers for the common schools." 59 In 1827 and succeed-
ing years recommendations to this eifect were repeated to the legisla-
ture by the regents, with pleas for increased appropriations. In 1834
the legislature passed the desired law.60 In consequence the regents
declared that no person should be admitted to the teachers' depart-
ment until he had passed such an examination as to entitle him to be

67 The following table is taken from Hough's Hist, and Statis. Rec., Univ. of New York, 1784-1884, 421

1804

1805

1806

1807

Studies.

Acade-
mies.

Pupils.

Acade-
mies.

Pupils.

Acade-
mies.

Pupils.

Acade-
mies.

Pupils.

Reading, writing

14
16
12
15
6

480
429
123
213
101

10

10
7
9

4

1
1
1

205

228

36

184

48

1

1

1

10
10
7
10
4
2
3

208
312
51
130
38
14
14

18
19
15
. 18
17
3
4
4

631

English grammar, arithmetic

649

Mathematics, bookkeeping

134

Dead languages

214

Logic, rhetoric, composition

97

Moral philosophy

22

Natural philosophy

36

French language

4

38

16

68 This term was upon the printed blank sent out by the regents during the four years
named.

69 Hough, op. cit., 527.
60 Ibid., 536,

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775.

83

considered a scholar in the higher branches of English education, the
first specified subject of Which is the English language.61 By 1837,
374 persons were enrolled in these teachers' departments.62 After 1836
the total enrollment in the academies increased at the rate of nearly
1,000 students a year, reaching the number of 20,920 in 1852.

Consideration of the textbooks used by the academies between 1832
and 1850 shows that the Murray grammars gradually disappeared.63
Kirkham's book does not reach its height until 1840 ; then it begins to
disappear, while Brown's gradually increases in popularity and the
new books of Weld, Wells, and Greene come to the fore. Greenleaf's
has meantime sunk into insignificance. Bullion's books were " The
Principles of English Grammar," Albany, 1834, which reached its
fourteenth edition in 12 years ; " Practical Lessons in English Gram-
mar and Composition," New York, 1844, thirty-third edition in seven
years; two minor works, and, finally, "Analytical and Practical Eng-
lish Grammar," New York, 1849, which attained its thirty-fifth edi-
tion in six years.64 Wells's, Clark's, Weld's, and Greene's books
belong to a new generation of textbooks. These we shall see in a later
chapter originating an entirely new conception of the nature and
functions of grammar and the methods of teaching it.65

81 Ibid., 539.
02 Ibid., 546.

Textbooks in grammar, New York academies, 1836-1852 — Number of academies

using various texts.
[Compiled from Annual Reports of Regents of State of N. Y., 1837-53.]

1836
69

1

1837

1838

1839
119

GO

1840
127

|
cT

1841
131

s

1842
142
r-

1843
149

1844
146

1845
153

00
CO

18-16
155

oo

8

CO

1847
156

o

1848
156

eo
o

1849
161

1850
166

OS

1 !
1851 18K2

Total number of academies

74

106

S

o

168

2

170

Number of students

1

Grammars:

18
38
20
24

4

15

45
27
25

7

14

58
37
40
10

1

11

56

36

46

8

2

10

61

40

53

8

6

9
54
47
48
13

3

6
54
54
52
21

4

6
51
71
56
37

5

5
39
73
52
47

6

2
33

69
48
48
3

2
37
67
40
52

3

1

33
75
35
53
3

1

25
71
29
49
3

1
22
72
24
45

1
15
72
22
50

2
17

66
21
60

1

9

68

Smith

??

55

7

1
15

8
21

7
16

fi

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

3

2
3

2

8

15
6
3

1
8

18
7
8
2

11

1
15

7
21

5
14

1

Wells..

13

Clark

10

Weld .

19

4

2

2

7

5

3

1

5

9

10

9

10

11

Total grammars used . .

106

122 162

169

186

180

195

247

235

216

225

220

212

211

213

241

218

64 Barnard, op. cit., XIII, 221.
« See Chap. VI, p. 152.

84

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Turning now to the common schools of New York, as distinguished
from the academies, we find that the reign of the Murray books
reached its height about 1833.66

The second book, reaching its height of popularity by 1839, is
Kirkham's " English Grammar by Familiar Lectures," 1825, of which
Barnard lists editions up to the forty-ninth, all published in New
York before 1840.67 Then follows Goold Brown's " The Institutes of
English Grammar," New York, 1823. The fourth author is Roswell
Smith, whose two works were " Intellectual and Practical Grammar
on the Inductive System," Providence, 1829, and " English Grammar
on the Productive System," Boston, 1831. Next comes Jeremiah
Greenleaf, whose " Grammar Simplified," New York, 1829, reached
its twentieth edition in 1851. 68

Detailed discussion of the significance of the domination of the
Murray books, apparently reaching their height in New York about
1833, and of the almost meteoric rise of Kirkham contemporaneous
with the passing of Murray, is reserved for another chapter69 on
methods of teaching. Of interest here is the comparison of the
amount of grammar being taught during this period. County offi-
cers almost without exception report that four subjects are taught in
all towns — reading, spelling, arithmetic, and grammar. The table
on page 85 shows the three most widely used textbooks in the counties
of New York of these three subjects, in addition to grammar.70

In each subject there seems to be one book which goes far toward
monopolizing the field. In grammar, honors for the period are fairly
well distributed between two, and the two together have a distinct

68 Textbooks in grammar, New York Public Schools, 1826-^1839 — Number of towns

using various texts.

[Compiled from Annual Rept. Supt. Common Schls., N

Y., 1830-1840.]

1826.

1829.

1831.

1832.

1833.

1835.

1836.

1837.

1838.

1839-

Grammars:

Murray

389

472
28
3

466
72

462

111

17

459

179

18

7

93

7

13

563
465
418

373
331
21
20
61
6
9

516
500
332

294

371

31

31

46

5

5

486
360
265

267
382
43
63
25
3
10

431

457
227

209
427

60
102

28

177

Kirkham

468

Brown

Smith

Greenleaf

35
14

76

20

4

5S4

88
17

96
12

23

Murray Introd

Murray Sequel

4

Other books:

English Reader

434

647 '
469
400

543
472
433

414

Daboll's Arithmetic

349 473
302 417

455

Webster's Speller

470

8T Barnard, op. cit, XIV, 763.

88 Ibid., XIII, 639.

89 See Chap. VI, p. 134.

70 Textbooks Used in New York, 1827-31. Summary from Reports of Supt. Com. Scb.
N. Y., reprinted A. J. of Ed, and Ins., 1832, 378,

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1*7*75.

85

advantage over Daboll's Arithmetic. By 1839 Kirkham alone sur-
passed all other textbooks except Webster's Speller, which for some
reason shows an unusual advance that year.

Books.

Towns

Towns

(1827;.

(1830).

434

584

349

473

389

472

302

317

168

216

110

309

117

120

108

98

91

96

80

61

59

209

35

76

6

33

4

9

1

8

0

28

Towns
(1831).

English Reader

Daboll's Arithmetic

Murray's Grammar

Webster's Speller

Testament

Woodbridge's Geography

Willet's Geography

Morse's Geography

Adams's Arithmetic

Pike's Arithmetic

Cobb's Geography

Greenleaf ' s Grammar

History of the United States.

Tyler's History

Colburn's Arithmetic

Kirkham 's Grammar

547

400

200

412

121

72

102

46

240

88

52

6

26

72

An idea of the proportion of pupils studying grammar may be
obtained from facts a few years later. In 1842, out of 173,384 pupils,
reported from 43 counties, 28,119 were studying English grammar.71
In 1846, of 227,760 pupils in winter schools, 51,484 were reported as
studying grammar, and of 211,747 in summer schools 32,289 were
studying the subject.72 In 1847, of 47,833 pupils in summer sessions
39,846 were studying grammar.73 In round numbers, between 15 and
20 per cent of the total number of pupils were studying grammar in
the common schools of New York as the middle of the century
approached.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The Massachusetts law of 1826, amended in 1837 and 1839, required
" in every town containing fifty families [extended in 1839 to ' every
town in this commonwealth '] 74 . . . one school for the instruction
of children in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar,
geography, arithmetic, and good behavior." Horace Mann, secretary
of the board of education, in 1838 interpreted this law to prescribe
what he calls " minimum literary qualifications of teachers " ; that is,
they " must be competent to teach the various subjects named." 75

Moreover, the law of 1835 required the school committee of every
town to submit annual school returns containing replies to 11 definite

"Ibid., 1843, 7.

"Ibid., 1847, 18.

"Ibid., 1848, 81.

u Acts and Resolves, Mass., 1839, 22.

« Mass. Sch. Rept., 1838, 59.

Mann is very careful to emphasize the point that it is strictly lawful for districts to
employ teachers more highly qualified, " who are able to teach the required branches
better, because they are masters of higher ones — who, for instance . . . can teach English
grammar better, because familiar, from the study of other languages, with the principles
of universal grammar."

86 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

inquiries, of Avhich the seventh was, " What are the Books in gem
use, specifying Spelling Books, Arithmetics, Grammars, Geographi<
Reading and other Books?"76 This provision was in force until
1841.77

Pursuant, then, to this series of acts the first four annual reports of
Mann, 1837 to 1840, inclusive, contain these data, as reported by the
separate town school committees.78

Concerning the status of grammar in Massachusetts between 1837
and 1841, several conclusions may be reached. The law requiring
grammar was obeyed in letter at least. Only four towns did not
report the subject in their curricula; in addition, only six towns failed
to make any report. Almost all the towns reported at least one text-
book in grammar. Roswell Smith's " Inductive " and " Progressive "
grammars were by far the most popular, with gradually increasing
numbers; Murray's followed in decreasing popularity. In Worces-
ter County, Pond's Murray monopolized the field, showing the com-
paratively local popularity of the Worcester author. Of the 35 towns
reporting Pond's as in use in 1837, 23 were in Worcester County and
8 in the neighboring county of Franklin. About one-fifth of the
towns reported more than two grammars ; some towns — Pittsfield, for
example — reported as many as five textbooks in use.79

The larger towns only, like Boston 80 and Dorchester, used separate

"Laws Com. Mass., XIII, 509.

Acts and Resolves, Mass., 1841, 345.

T8

Toicns naming English grammar
[Compiled from School Returns, 1838,

in Massachusetts.

1839, 1840, 1841.]

Year

1837

1838

1839

1840

298

295

224

307

208

104

19

35

19

11

13

9

7

13

1

10

215
%
18
36
17
12
13
10

7
17

1
12

224
84
17
36
15
11
12
11

7
26

2
15

237

54

15

41

9

13

12

9

4

Parker's

20

3

14

79 Concerning the great variety of textbooks in all subjects, Mann reported that in 1837
there were in use in Massachusetts 110 different readers and spellers, 24 grammars, 22
arithmetics, 20 geographies, 9 books of diction, 3 chemistries, 5 geometries, 2 compositions.
A. A. of Ed. and I.. VII, 101.

80 In 1840-41 the Boston school system embraced 1 Latin grammar school, 1 English
high school, 13 grammar and writing schools, and 95 primary schools. Bost. Sch. Kept.,
1841, 3. Regulations prescribed for the grammar schools (four-year course), in Class III,
Murray's " English Grammar," abridged by Alger, or Parker and Fox's " Progressive Exer-
cises " ; Class II, the same continued and Foot's " Exercises in Parsing " ; Class I, the
same continued, together with composition and declamation. Ibid., 16. For admission
to the English high school an examination in grammar was necessary ; for the first year
of high school a review of grammatical texts of the lower schools was prescribed, while
" the several classes shall be instructed in grammar." Ibid., 20.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 87

textbooks in parsing and composition. Mann says that only two
schools had separate instruction in composition. Nevertheless, we see
that increasing use of Parker's " Progressive Exercises in Composi-
tion " indicated that the latter subject was encroaching upon the field
of formal grammar.81

The overwhelming preponderance of Smith's books, only six years
off the press, denoted a rapid departure from the Murray type. To
be sure, Pond's, Putnam's, and Alger's were nothing but modifications
of Murray's; but even adding the towns using the three to the towns
using Murray's a total of 159 towns in 1837 is still far short of the
popularity of Smith's " Productive Lessons." Out of 298 towns
reporting, 208 used Smith's book,82 many of them in the grades imme-
diately above the primary, usually called grammar grades. Private
schools and academies also used it.

This was the period of the extreme popularity of Kirkham's book
in New York, but naturally we do not find the grammars of New
York very widely adopted by the schools of Massachusetts.

The records of 1840 show a remarkable increase of schools breaking
away from the Murray type of instruction.83 Only 54 towns, as com-
pared with 104 in 1837, still kept the Murray, while the Putnam and
Pond merely held their own. Very many towns which in 1837 had
reported the use of both Smith's and Murray's, in 1840 reported the
former alone.

While on the whole the law requiring the teaching of grammar was
generally obeyed, there is frequent testimony that it was studied with
reluctance and even open opposition. For example, the Provincetown
committee reported : " Grammar has been attended to very indiffer-
ently, in our town schools, for all past time. There are but few
scholars who study it at all, and few indeed who have made much
proficiency in it." 84 In the same year the Westport school officials
asserted :

As there are some schools in which grammar has never been taught . . . and
there are few or none who wish to pursue it ... . for these reasons the com-
mittee has been urged to grant certificates to teachers deficient in grammar.86

VERMONT.

Vermont and New Hampshire present much the same relative
emphasis on grammar between 1840 and 1850. Especially frequent is
the complaint against the multiplicity of textbooks. The State super-
intendent of Vermont reports, in 1848, that several conventions of

"Mann, op. cit. "Mass. Sch. Ret., 1843, 271.

« See Chap. IV, p. 86. " Ibid., 252.

•» Ibid.

88 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

county superintendents had recommended uniform textbooks. The
grammar chosen was William H. Wells's.86 English grammar was
included, according to the State official," among the usual branches."87
Superintendents of various counties report " Wells' grammars in
most schools," 88 while the State superintendent thinks that the
acquaintance with grammar acquired is " very slight." 89 " Teachers
are very poorly prepared." 90

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

In his section on schoolbooks the school superintendent of New
Hampshire, in 1846, makes a typical comment :

In the days of Pike's Arithmetic, and Murray's Grammar, and Webster's
Spelling Book, there was no trouble in choosing books; there were none to
choose from. Our difficulty consists mainly in determining which is best among
so many that are good.91

One county official strikes even a new note when he recommends
that " a portion of the time now devoted to grammar and arithmetic
ought to be spent in the proper study of mankind." 92

OHIO.

Only an occasional reference concerning grammar finds place in
the records of the State superintendent of Ohio during this early
period. In 1838 one county official reported : " Reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, and grammar are taught in most schools." 93
Clerks of the county examiners complain of the almost utter incom-
petency of teachers, one saying that of 156 examined 53 were very
poorly qualified and but 51 understood " either wholly or in part "
geography, English grammar, and history. The county was com-
pelled to accept them, else many schools would have been left without
teachers." 94

Ten years later (1846-47) the status of grammar had improved
considerably in Ohio. Reports of the State superintendent indicate
that the subject was now regarded as an essential part of the common-
school program. In the words of the State Teachers' Association of

86Rept. Supt. Com. Sch., Vt., 1848, 21.
»TIbid., 24.

88 Ibid., 1849, 52.

89 Ibid., 17.

90 Ibid., 47.

"Kept. Supt. Com. Sch. N. H., 1846-7, 18.
88 Ibid., 1848, Appendix, XXXIX.
M Rept. of Supt. Com. Sch., 1839, 52.
"Ibid., 53.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTBR 1775.

89

1847, " a substantial English education ought to be given every citi-
zen of the State." 95 In the " union schools," Ohio's term for com-
mon schools, divided into primary, secondary, and senior or grammar-
school departments —

a thorough course of instruction in all the common English branches is pursued,
and to this is added, when practicable, a high school, in which the higher
English branches, mathematics, and the languages are taught.96

Ashtabula County reported that Smith's Grammar was used in 99
schools, Kirkham's in 49, Brown's in 25, Noell's in 16, Bullion's in 13.97
The following tabular statement from the same county gives indica-
tion of the number of pupils studying the subject as compared with
the other English branches :

Summer schools, 1847.

Town-
ships.

Number

of
schools
visited.

Average
attend-
ance.

Number
in

spelling.

Number
in arith-
metic.

Number
in gram-
mar.

Number
in geog-
raphy.

Number
in com-
position.

28

131

2,869

3,550

560

371

873

163

WINTER SCHOOLS.

28

157

4,190

Per cent.
19

Per cent.
35

Per cent.
19

Per cent.
"23

Per cent.
8

* Ibid., 34. t

Seneca County also furnishes data on this point. The number of
pupils studying spelling was 3,200; arithmetic, 3,540; grammar, 420;
geography, 500."

Nevertheless, complaint was frequently made that teachers were
incompetent to teach the subject.1 Licking County so reports. In
Fairfield County, of 110 licensed all were found competent to teach
reading, writing, and arithmetic, only 64 were proficient in grammar,
62 in geography, and 10 in algebra.2 In Knox County somewhat more
than 50 per cent of the teachers were competent in grammar,3 and
some districts refused to allow grammar and geography to be taught,
the examiner adding : " If geography and grammar were added as
legal qualifications of teachers, they would be required to understand
them." Ashtabula County reported fully all the examinations given
pupils in the various classes. Eighteen minutes were allowed candi-
dates to answer the following examination in grammar : *

98 Rept. of Sec. of State, Com. Sen.,

1848, 52.

1 Ibid.,

42.

•«Ibid., 56.

• Ibid.,

40.

"Ibid., 32.

• Ibid.,

41.

••Ibid., 47.

« Ibid.,

20.

90 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

It is the mind that lives.

1. How many capital letters should be used in writing the above sentence?

2. Is the sentence simple or compound?

3. How much may be regarded as a simple sentence?

4. In this sentence what are the principal parts?

5. What is government in grammar?

6. What is meant by case?

7. What is meant by the conjugation of a verb?

8. Give the principal parts of the verb " to go."

These questions were given to 455 children of average age of 15;
42 per cent of the answers were correct. The highest average was 72
per cent for Morgan Township.5 The same attitude toward the cur-
riculum was found in the State reports of Ohio in the decade 1847-
1857 as in the preceding 10 years ; the references, however, are scatter-
ing and unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, the fact that we invariably find
grammar named whenever a complete curriculum is mentioned indi-
cates that the subject was fully established. In Ashtabula County, in
1850, the distribution of pupils by studies was : Orthography, 2,174 ;
reading, 6,005; mental arithmetic, 1,684; written arithmetic, 2,214;
geography, 1,248 ; English grammar, 934 ; composition, 759.6 Coshoc-
ton County reported 255 pupils in spelling, 181 in arithmetic, 180
in grammar, 13 in geometry.7 Holmes, Meigs, Preble, Rockland,
and Scioto Counties reported grammar taught in all the districts,8
while Pike County affirmed —

the provision of the law requiring teachers to understand Geography and Eng-
lish Grammar should by no means be repealed. It is found that in this county
teachers are as defective in Arithmetic as in Grammar ; . . . the majority, yea,
four-fifths of the applicants, are unqualified to teach anything more than the
first principles.*

NORTH CAROLINA.

The private schools of North Carolina generally included English
grammar in their curricula after 1800.10 Five schools before 1800
report grammar. Grove Academy, the earliest, in 1787 reported
" twenty-five students under a master who teaches only the Latin and
English grammar." xl The trustees of New Bern Academy report the
examination of pupils in the English language in 1794 ; 12 likewise,

e Ibid., 21.

•Ann. Rept. Sec. State, Com. Sen., 1851, 55.

I Ibid., 63.

» Ibid., 79, 96, 104, 107, 112.
•Ibid., 103.

10 Data in this section are compiled from North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-
1840, A Documentary History, by Charles L. Coon.

II Coon (op. cit., 75) cites Carr's Dixon Letters, 34, 35.
12 Ibid., 50. New Bern Gaz., Jan. 4, 1794.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 91

Fayetteville Academy announces that pupils excel in English gram-
mar in 1800.13 in 1794 Wayne Academy began with emphasis in
English, and a few years later the " fifth class . . . were examined in
English Grammar from the verb ' to have' to syntax"; the sixth
class " as far as the substantive " ; the seventh " as far as the ' article,' "
and the eighth class " to the verb ' to be.' " 14

The decade between 1801-1810 shows 18 schools specifically naming
grammar. The following are typical statements: Wadesborough
Academy, " English Grammar, Geography, . . . twelve Dollars." 15
Caswell Academy employed an instructor " to teach the English Lan-
guage grammatically." 16 The Halifax Classical School was opened
in 1807 " where he (the principal) taught the Latin & English gram-
matically. . . ." 17 The succeeding decade shows 25 academies and
schools definitely mentioning the subject. In the Salisbury Academy
Miss Elizabeth T. Harris was examined " on the whole of English
Grammar, parsing, correcting false syntax, rules of punctuation, per-
spicuity, etc. . . . and she exhibited several specimens of Composi-
tion."18 In 1819 John Haasam came to Raleigh " as a traveling teacher
of English Grammar." His announcement begins : " The Acquisition
of English Grammar Rendered pleasing, expeditious and perma-
nent." 19 The decade of 1821-1830 shows 39 definite announcements
of grammar ; that of 1831-1840 shows 31 schools which give the sub-
ject a prominent place. One Edward Fowlkes, in 1831, announced of
a certain school : " It is an institution in which the English Grammar
is taught upon a completely new and successful plan in seven weeks,
at seven dollars per scholar. '; 20

In all, 118 schools, of about 300 private institutions of which
Coon has reprinted documents, were definitely teaching English

"Ibid., 60. Raleigh Reg., Aug. 19, 1800.

14 Ibid., 634. Raleigh Reg., Oct. 9, 1818. The textbooks mentioned in these records
are Murray's Grammar and Murray's Exercises. Among the books advertised in North
Carolina during the period before 1810 appear also Webster's, Ashe's, Dilworth's, Priestley's.
Lowth's, Aker's, Harrison's "Exercises in Bad English," Murray's " Exercises," Mur-
ray's " Introduction," Fisher's. Ibid., 769, 73, 74, 75, 77, 80, 86. After 1810 there appear
in addition Alexander's, Garretson's " Exercises in Bad English," Greenleaf's, Ingersol's,
Comley's, Brown's, Boardman's. Ibid., 789, 95. In 1838 Turner and Hughes, of Raleigh,
advertised " 200 Smith's Practical Productive Grammar, 700 Murray's English Grammar
well bound in leather and offered at a reduced price." Ibid., 798, Raleigh Reg., Mar.
12, 1838.

School officials were eager to secure good English teachers. Such advertisements
appeared in the Raleigh Register between 1800-1810 ; also qualified " to teach English
Grammar." Ibid., 800-4. From 1811-1820 there are cited seven similar advertisements.
Thirty of the 40 advertisements and announcements cited between 1821 and 1840 concern
teachers for English schools. Ibid., 813-820.

15 Ibid., 2. Raleigh Reg., May 9, 1803.
10 Ibid., 19. Raleigh Reg., Dec. 9, 1803.

" Ibid., 175. Halifax Jour., Jan. 12, 1807.
18 Ibid., 363. Western Carolinian, Dec. 19, 1820.
"Ibid., 521. Raleigh Reg., Aug. 27, 1819.
"•Ibid., 558; The Star, June 30, 1831.

92 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

,.

grammar before 1840. No direct evidence appears with respect
instruction in English grammar in the 172 other schools, and we can
not therefore assert positively that instruction in this branch, was
given in any one of them. Yet it seems likely that some of these
schools gave such instruction, because many of them do not announce
their curricula, and almost without exception those schools which
do include grammar in the documents studied. However, among the
schools not listed very many announced " the English School," " the
branches usually taught in English Schools," " the lower and higher
branches of English," " all branches of English," " the ordinary
branches of English," or used similar phrases. We may conclude that
the private schools of North Carolina were very generally laying
stress upon grammar before 1840.

4. THE STATUS OF GRAMMAR, 1850 TO 1870.

In spite of the fact that an enormous number of grammars were
sold every year in the middle of the nineteenth century, they were
used mostly in the intermediate and high schools of the larger and
more prosperous towns, and at best only in a perfunctory way in the
schools of smaller communities.

PENNSYLVANIA.

A body of data concerning the status of the common schools of Penn-
sylvania seems to bear out this conclusion for that State. In 1854
the legislature passed a law requiring instruction in grammar 21 and
obliged each county superintendent to submit an annual report to the
superintendent of common schools.22 In the following year all but a
few counties complied.

Examination of these reports shows that there is almost universal
evidence of scarcity of good teachers ; that many who applied to take
the examinations were rejected ; that many times teachers who were
deficient in grammar and geography had to be accepted. Out of 50
counties 28 county superintendents comment on the difficulty of secur-
ing competent teachers of any subjects, 39 upon the incompetency of
teachers applying for examination in grammar. For example, in
Bucks County 270 teachers were examined ; certificates were granted
to 20 who were deficient in English grammar on their promise " that
they would make themselves acquainted with this subject during the
year." 23 In Bradford County " out of 500 teachers examined . . .

21 " It shall be the duty of each county superintendent to see that in every district there
shall be taught orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and arith-
metic. . . ." Laws Com. Pa., 1854, 625.

»Ibid., 627.

88 Pa. Com. Sen. Kept., 1854, 25.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1175. 93

one-fourth fell below the standard required by law." 24 Center
County was compelled to issue many certificates from which English
grammar and geography were stricken out.25 Especially suggestive
is the statement from Clearfield County :

I find many who can go through the grammar and repeat every rule and
conjugate every verb correctly and can not analyze and parse the most simple
sentence.2"

The foregoing are fairly typical replies.

The superintendent of Adams County found that general opposi-
tion to the new school law lay in the requirement that English gram-
mar and geography should be taught. He affirmed that " none of the
parents wish their children to study English Grammar and Geog-
raphy." 27 He allayed the opposition by explaining that the law
required grammar in every county but not in every school. This is
typical of many references to hostility toward the subject; very few
counties report favorable instruction in the subject, and that in the
academies and larger schools. All these facts lead to the inference
that English grammar as such had little place in the large majority
of the common schools of Pennsylvania. To be sure, the law was new.
The relative emphasis upon grammar and other higher branches in
New York at this period indicates the effects of 25 years of legal
requirement of the branches in the latter State as compared with the
absence of such requirement in Pennsylvania. In the latter the report
of Indiana County states what seems to have been near the general
truth :

A rough knowledge of spelling, reading, writing, and ciphering is deemed all
sufficient, whilst a knowledge of grammar, geography, etc., is most heartily
repudiated.28

In short, the Pennsylvania reports show that the schools were by
no means fitted to give good instruction in grammar. Thirty-nine
counties report grossly inadequate instruction; 29 say they have to
accept whoever applies ; 20 complain of hopeless variety of textbooks
and incompetent grading; 18 speak of decided opposition to gram-
mar ; 14 say that local inspectors, being unpaid, are unsatisfactory ; 11
mention wretched buildings; only 3 reports are really commenda-
tory, although many are optimistic concerning the ultimate effect of
State aid, certification of teachers, and other new features of the law.

"Ibid., 19.
28 Ibid., 38.
2aIbid., 47.

27 Ibid., 4.

28 Ibid., 15. The superintendent of Bucks County, in one school, saw 9 classes recite in
the following order : One scholar in Swain's Reader ; 12 in Frost's History ; 1 in Emer-
son's First Class Reader ; 1 in Comley's Reader ; 1 in Emerson's Third Class Reader ; 2
in Emerson's Rhetorical Reader ; 1 In Comley's Spelling Book ; 2 in The Primer ; 2 in The
A B C's, The same program was repeated in the afternoon. Ibid., 28,

94 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMEBICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

NEW JERSEY.

r dur-

The status of grammar in the common schools of New Jersey
ing the decade 1850 to 1860 may be seen by an examination of the
reports of the State board of education for three representative
years — 1850, 1854, and 1860. The total number of references in these
reports concerning the curriculum include statements from 12 of the
21 counties and from 19 different townships which specifically men-
tion grammar. In 1850 Bergen County reports " grammar, history,
arithmetic taught orally to young pupils " in Hackensack Town-
ship ; 29 of 154 boys and 152 girls in Northampton Township, Burling-
ton County, 66 were studying grammar,30 and of 150 pupils, 50 Avere
studying grammar in Southampton Township.31 The superintendent
of Hunterdon County reports that a few pupils only study grammar.32
An interesting sidelight, indicating that in certain quarters the sub-
ject was regarded as the capstone of the common-school curriculum, is
found in the following statement of the superintendent of Wood-
bridge Township, Middlesex County : " There are taught all the sub-
jects usually taught in the schools, from the alphabet to English
grammar." 33 Of reports from 175 townships, in 1851, only five cited
above speak of grammar. However, the subject is mentioned by every
officer who mentions the curriculum at all.

The following table giving the distribution of pupils by subjects
in seven districts of Wall Township, Monmouth County, is enlighten-
ing as showing the relatively small number of pupils studying gram-
mar, which, as we have seen, was regarded as one of the higher
branches in the common schools.34

District.

Total.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Number of pupils

40

20

1

27

25

12

12

10

4

2

81

42

9

70

55

30

12

4

3

4

50

30

4

25

20

10

14

6

4

2

61

36

6

30

30

16

15

10

5

5

68

40

5

60

60

40

30

20

8

6

40

25

1

25

20

20

15

7

4

2

7

92
42
5

37
32
25
15
6
6
3

432

Average attendance

235

31

Spelling

274

Reading

237

Writing

153

Arithmetic

113

Beyond division

63

Geography

35

Grammar

24

Defining words

7

Philosophy

1

1

In 1860, 205 townships in 21 counties show meager evidence as to
grammar being a part of the curriculum, only eight townships refer-
ring definitely to it. Roswell Smith's grammars predominate, and
there is constant indication that the subject is taught as a higher

29 Kept. State Supt., 1851, 32.
80 Ibid., 41.
» Ibid., 45.

32 Ibid., 63.
83 Ibid., 85.
"Ibid., 1854,

127.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1175.

95

.branch, only very few pupils pursuing it. The conclusion which must
be reached is that grammar was but indifferently taught in New Jer-
sey, only in the better common schools, with less than one-tenth of the
pupils studying it. This is entirely consistent with the status of the
subject in Pennsylvania during the same period.

NEW YORK.

The showing of New York for the decade in question is more favor-
able. The State was evidently far in advance of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey.35

In comparing with the adjoining States it needs to be remembered
that the academies of New York are higher schools than the common
schools considered in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Data concern-
ing the status of grammar in the common schools of New York are
not available after 1839 ; but even as early as 1826-1839 the showing
for grammar in common schools in New York far surpasses that of
the two other States named even for 20 years later.36

Regents' reports of New York, covering the condition of grammar
for the period, 1865 to 1874, in the academies, show the complete
passing of the grammars of the old guard (with the exception of
Goold Brown's, Murray's, Kirkham's, Smith's, and Webster's). The
newer grammars of the middle of the century have taken their place,
as will be seen from the following table : 37

1865

1866

1867

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

1873

Brown

72
3

24
55
17
13
25
13

66
3
20
56
13
9
25
26

75
1
26
58
14
7
29
30

61

62

58

52

54

51

Smith .

Bullion

30
53
10
13
26
28

30
45
10
12
17
28

35
34
6

12
20
32

30

36

7

17
17
34

35

34

6

21

16

31

5

6

35

Clark

34

Weld

5

25

11

Kerl.

50

12

4

4

4

5

3

4

7

7

85 The following table continues the table on page 83 through the years 1850 to 1856,
inclusive.

Year

1851

168

19,552

1852

170

20,920

1853

169

22,670

1854

173

22, 778

1855

165

18,051

1856

176

20, 860

Grammars:

2
17
66
21
60

1

9

68
22
55

3

77

18

52

1

6

14

9

19

3

5

10

0
3
75
16
53
5
7
10
12
21
4
2
12

1
2
75
13
54
1
5
5
11
18
2
2
15

1

0

80

Smith

21

54

7
15

8
21

7

5
13
10
19

4

4

Wells

6

Clark

15

Weld

14

7

2

16

11

12

Compiled from Regent's Reports, 1852-1857, inclusive. The 1855 figures represent two-thirds of the year

"See p. 84.

«TReg. Rep., 1876, 439.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

..

The new grammars of Quackenbos and Kerl have attained prom
nence, and Swinton's " Language Lessons," of 1873, which was to
revolutionize the teaching of the subject, is seen just entering the
academies. The fact is significant that the total number of grammars
reported is considerably diminished, even though the number of
academies is increased. This means that the place of the subject in
the curriculum has become more stable.

Some light can be thrown on the status of grammar in the acad-
emies during this period by reports of regents' examinations. The
percentage of those passing in grammar is noticeably lower than in
arithmetic, geography, and spelling, the three other subjects used.38

OHIO.

In Ohio, 1852, the 26 townships of Licking County taught English
grammar.39 That the instruction was largely perfunctory in some of
the rural counties, at least, is evidenced by the superintendent of Pike
County, who reported :

That our children should learn to read and write, and occasionally, in large
towns and cities, to the highly favoured, may be added, by way of luxury, a
little sprinkling of Geography and Grammar, answers almost universal custom.40

That this man somewhat underestimated the universal custom is
shown by the report of the State commissioner for the. year 1856,
summarizing the number of pupils instructed in the various branches.
The total number of " unmarried " children of school age (5 to 21) in
the State was 799,666; of these, 561,315 were enrolled in the schools;
the average attendance was 322,643. 41 The distribution of these by
subjects is as follows : 42

' 1856. 1857.

Penmanship 249, 002 271, 440

Mental arithmetic 82, 640 112. 744

Written arithmetic „ 166, 665 187, 290

Geography * 90, 784 108, 270

English grammar 63, 414 75, 353

Composition 15, 201 21. 916

History 5, 824 6, 759

Algebra 5, 790 7, 644

* Percentage of students passing in grammar in New York academies, 1866 to 187S.

1866

1867

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

12,939

5,306

4.1

12,266

5,354

8.65

11, 780

4,861
30.97

11,322
3,251
28.71

12,286
3,276
26.66

13,063
4,161
31.85

15, 442

6,118

39.61

Ann. Rept. Regt. Univ. N. Y., 89, 472.
» Rept. Sec. State, Com. Sch., 1852, 40. « Rept. of Sen. Comm., 1857, 8Q,

* Ibid., 51, « Ibid., 89,

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 97

1856. 1857.

Rhetoric 404 929

Latin.. 675 1, 319

Greek 113 159

German .... 903 1,320 '

French 180 250

Zoology 675 688

This table, indicating that approximately one-fifth of the pupils
were studying grammar, seems to warrant the assertion that the sub-
ject was almost universal, including quite as large a percentage of
pupils as in New York and Massachusetts. This conclusion must be
qualified by two facts : First, undeveloped counties, like Pike 43 and
Gallia,44 report that, with very few exceptions, reading, writing, and
arithmetic are " all the pupils are expected to acquire " ; second, there
is frequent complaint that teachers are incompetent, especially in
grammar and geography. In 1858 the State commissioner said : "As
the chief of all causes of poor schools, poor teachers stands out. That
one-half, or one-tenth (sic), even of the thousands of teachers in
Ohio are in all respects what their profession demands no one can
justly claim." 45

The status of English branches in academies of Ohio in this decade
(1850-1860) may be seen in the reports of typical academies made to
State officials:46

Academy.

Ancient

lan-
guages.

Modern

lan-
guages.

Higher
English
branches.

20
75
22
12
65

150

8

190

27

Gallipolis

20
37

40

Kingsville

142

NEW HAMPSHIRE

The status of grammar in New Hampshire schools in 1850-1852 is
indicated by the report of the county commissioner of Rockingham
County for the year 1851. The commissioner had been conducting a
campaign against the multiplicity of schoolbooks and had succeeded
in inducing his various town committees to recommend uniform
books for the use of all the schools in their towns. He records, town
by town, the grammars represented. Thirty towns report. Of these,
2 do not mention books recommended; only 1 other does not
mention a grammar. Of the remaining 24 towns, preference is
shown in 14 for W. H. Wells's Grammar; in 7 towns for Roswell

« Ibid., 1852, 49.

"Ibid., 1856.

«Ibid., 1858, 61.

"Kept. State Com. Ed., 1858, 168, 67, 66, 61, 59.

60258°— 22 7

98 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

Smith's " Productive Lessons," and in 6 towns for Weld's " Ne
Grammar." As second choice (used in a few schools) 3 towns
reported Wells's, 4 Weld's, and 6 Smith's.46a The total number of
towns in Rockingham County, in 1852, was 37, with 455 schools in
operation.47 Scattered references in reports from commissioners of
other counties indicate that Rockingham is typical. In Carroll
County the commissioner especially examined grammar classes.48 In
Cheshire County Institute a teacher of grammar was provided.49 Sul-
livan County named a number of towns in which " grammar was
better taught than it was last year." 50 In Grafton County the com-
missioner emphasized the " elements of grammar." 51 In Coos County
children of 12 were passing good examinations in grammar.52

The report of the State commissioner of the following year (1852)
indicates that the county commissioners, meeting at the capital, recom-
mended a uniform system of textbooks, among them H. N. Weld's
New Grammar and Dyer H. Sanborn's Grammar.53 Several county
commissioners endeavored to have grammar " taught understand-
ingly," 54 and occasionally there crept in a vigorous advocacy of com-
position as supplementary to grammar.55 Cheshire County reported
a large variety of grammars.56

MICHIGAN.

In 1857 the superintendent of instruction of Michigan asked the
officers of all the union schools 57 to furnish him information upon 12
points, one of which was the course of study pursued in the school.
Replies from a number of schools, although very incomplete, enable
us to determine the status of grammar in the curriculum. The normal
grading appears to be reported in Dowagiac union school, divided
into primar}-, grammar (or intermediate), and high school depart-
ments. Rudiments of grammar were begun in the grammar school
(the fifth year of the pupil's school life), together with composition
and declamation. The high-school department, beginning in the
seventh year of school life, included grammar, composition, analysis
of English sentence, declamation, and elocution.58 The equivalent
course is reported in Grand Rapids, Jonesville, and Ontonagon.59
Ypsilanti, in the grammar department, used Clark's Primary Gram-
mar, with declamations and compositions weekly; in the academic

48a Kept. Comm. Scb. N. H., 1852, 61-7. « Ibid., 133.

47 Op. cit., 1853, 64. » Ibid., 1853, 29.

48 Ibid., 1852, 82. " Ibid-) 94.

49 Ibid., 105. «*Ibid., 96-7.

60 Ibid., 110. "Ibid.. 118.

61 Ibid., 121.

57 A term embracing all the public schools in the various communities.
68 Mich. Sch. Repts., 1857, 457.
89 Ibid., 465, 7, 77.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775. 99

department, Clark's Grammar, English analysis, original and selected
declamations, and compositions weekly.60 Coldwater reported the
same curriculum with different textbooks.61 Ann Arbor High School
showed English grammar in its first year,62 while Adrian High School
required an entrance examination in grammar, analysis, and simple
rules for composition.63

Neither the academies nor the common schools so far considered are
in themselves sufficient to determine the status of instruction in gram-
mar. We have seen that the common schools give but very limited
and indifferent instruction in the subject and that the New York
academies, looked upon as fitting schools for teachers, had special
interest in grammar. There is available in convenient form informa-
tion from the printed school regulations as to the status of the sub-
ject obtaining in a considerable number of cities of representative
distribution throughout the Union. The regulations of New York
City; Springfield, Mass.; New Haven, New Bedford, Boston, Chi-
cago, St. Louis, Louisville, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati are studied
particularly.64

LARGER CITIES.

In the primary school (common, elementary, or district school in
some cities), with from four to seven grades, the formal study of
grammar was not begun. There is exception in the case of New
Haven, where grammar is prescribed for the sixth and seventh grades
of the common school. However, this city seems to have had no inter-
mediate or grammar school. By 1866 Chicago had also adopted the
twofold division — elementary and high schools — and grammar
appears in the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades. The latter city
announces, however, that " grammar shall be taught practically in
all the grades in connection with composition." In the regulations
of all the other cities noted a similar provision is made, either specifi-
cally or by implication. Eastern cities seem to lay great stress on oral-
grammar work in all grades except the first two. New York and Cin-
cinnati have unique courses in " punctuation," running through all
the primary grades. Cincinnati, insisting upon " practical " gram-
mar for the first five grades, adds " and pupils in grade A (sixth)

«o Ibid., 476. MIbid., 440.

61 Ibid., 449. e3 Ibid., 434.

"Data in Barnard's Amer. J. of Ed., 1870, 469-518.

In the Cincinnati schools, 1860, pupils were distributed in the various branches of Eng-
lish as follows: High schools — English grammar, 174, rhetoric, 294, reading, 364, compo-
sition, 363, declamation, 199 ; intermediate schools — reading and orthography, 1,179.
English grammar, 1,174, penmanship, 1,179, composition, 941, elocution, 204 ; in the dis-
trict schools — alphabet, 4,632, English grammar, 421, composition, 463, elocution, 266.
Common Sch. Cincin., 31st Ann. Rept, 9. The principal of the Woodward High School
reported that " grammar is now well taught in the intermediate schools." Ibid., 57. The
following year showed a total of 2,682 pupils in grammar, 3,616 in composition, 954 in
elocution, 363 in rhetoric out of a total of 22,749 children enrolled. Ibid., 1861, 9.

100 ENGLISH GEAMMAE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

shall be familiar with their textbook (in grammar) as far as mode
With this exception the fact seems to be that no formal grammar was
taught in the first five years of school life, that it was rarely taught in
the sixth year, and not often in the seventh. Provision for incidental
instruction during these years is universal.

In the intermediate grades, usually called grammar grades, the
subject reigned supreme. New York, after her six years in punctua-
tion, apparently gave twro years of relief, for formal grammar study
does not appear until the third year of the grammar school. Not till
the fifth year of the intermediate schools did textbook work in gram-
mar begin, but it had been taught orally for the two years preceding.
In the fifth year " English grammar commenced, with the use of text-
books, to include the analysis, parsing, and construction of simple
sentences, and with such definitions only as pertain to the parts of
speech." This type of teaching was continued for the two following
years.

To summarize, New York began formal grammar in the ninth year
of school, New Haven in the seventh, Cincinnati in the sixth, Spring-
field in the seventh, New Bedford in the eighth, Boston in the eighth.
Chicago in the eighth, St. Louis in the sixth, Louisville in the eighth,
Philadelphia in the eighth. The average for these representative
cities was about the eighth grade.

As to the length of time given the study below the high school, New
York assigned five years (two orally) ; New Haven, three years; New
Bedford, two years ; Cincinnati, three years ; Springfield, three years ;
Boston, three years;65 Chicago, three years; St. Louis, two years;
Louisville, three years; Philadelphia, five years. The average time
given, apparently, was three years. This does not consider informal

85 Boston shows the normal arrangement of three schools, as follows :

Primary school. Six grades. No traces of formal grammar, but oral instruction in all
grades. Grammar incidental.

Grammar schools. Four grades. Grammar in the last three grades, class No. 3 using
Kerl's " Elementary English Grammar," class No. 2 using Kerf's " Elementary " or Kerl's
" Comprehensive English Grammar," class No. 1, grammar. The last two classes have
composition and, in the boys' school, declamation.

Girls' high school. Three grades. Entrance examination iu grammar. Lowest class —
grammar reviewed, analysis of language and structure of sentences, composition.

English high school. Three grades. Entrance examination in grammar.

" The several classes shall also have exercises in English composition and declamation.
The instructors shall pay particular attention to the penmanship of the pupils and give
constantly such attention to spelling, reading, and English grammar as they may deem
necessary to make the pupils familiar with these fundamental branches of a good
education."

The regulations of the English high schools for 1820, date of founding, required gram-
mar in the lowest class, with composition, criticism, and declamation in all the classes.
By 1886 grammar as a formal study had been dropped ; for the first class, however, were
prescribed " reviews of the preparatory studies in the textbooks authorized to be used in
the grammar and writing schools," and the provision was that " the several divisions shall
also receive instruction in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, declamation, com-
position, and the French language." In the successive regulations of 1820, 1836. and
1852 we see the process of forcing formal grammar into the lower school and retaining
Incidental study of it in the high school, with entrance examination required.

RAPID RISE OF GRAMMAR AFTER 1775.

101

study of grammar or collateral study in connection with composition
either before or after the formal study. Philadelphia was the only
city on the list requiring textbook study for five years.

The position of grammar in the high schools was as follows: In
some cities an entrance examination or certificate of proficiency from
the grammar school was required, as in New York and Boston ; in some
cities review courses were prescribed in the first year of the high
school, as in Louisville, Philadelphia, and others ; in still other cities
grammar was designated as an incidental study in the high school — in
all three grades of the Boston high school and in the last three grades
in New Haven.66

Further light upon the status of grammar in the high-school cur-
riculum of 1867 is found in a study made from the official regulations
of 29 cities published in 1870. The original study includes all the
subjects mentioned in the statutes as being taught in the high school.
The following table67 indicates only the subjects pertaining to the
vernacular :

Cities.

Spelling.

Reading.

English
syno-
nyms.

English
litera-
ture.

Rhetoric.

Compo-
sition.

Decla-
mation.

Gram-
mar.

X
X
X

X
X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X

X

X

x

X

X
X

X

x

X
X
X
X
X

x

x

X
X

X
X
X

x

x

Fond du Lac (Wis.)..

X
y

X

X

x

X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

x

X

x

X
X

x

::::::::::::::::::::

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

x

Madison (Wis.)

x

X

x

X

x

X
X

X
X
X
X

X

x

x

Niles (Mich )

X
X
X
X

x

Philadelphia .

X
X

x

Portland (Me.)

x

x

x

X
X
X
X
X
X

X

X

X
X
X
X

x

X
X
X

X

X

Troy.

X

x

X

X

X

Spelling and English synonyms appear in the statutes of 5 cities,
reading in 12, declamation in 17, English literature in 21, composi-
tion in 23, grammar in 23, and rhetoric in 27. However, the data are

66 In St. Louis grammar was begun as a textbook study in the sixth grade of the district
school ; the first quarter to page 27 ; second, 46 ; third, 58 ; fourth, 75 ; continued in sev-
enth grade, first quarter to page 100 ; second, 122 ; third, 164 ; fourth, review. The subject
was then dropped until the first year of the high school, in the first year of which English
parsing and analysis are prescribed.

In Louisville no grammar was shown in the four years of the primary department ; in
the intermediate department there was oral instruction based on the readers, in which the

102 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN" AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

:

ambiguous, because a number of the cities are listed in the above table
as giving grammar whose educational statutes, printed in the sam
volume, do not require it. Among them are Boston, Chicago, and Cin
cinnati, which, according to the statutes, had grammar in the high
school only as an incidental study; yet these cities are listed in the
table as teaching grammar in the high school. This fact indicates the
only inference that can safely be drawn from the table, namely, that
23 of the 29 cities prescribe grammar in some form, either (1) as a
regular subject, supplementing a two or three year course in the inter-
mediate schools, as in New Haven, or (2) as a review course, lasting
one or two terms, as in New York, or (3) as incidental or supplemen-
tary work in connection with composition or rhetoric, as in Boston,
Chicago, and Cincinnati.

pupils " repeat orally and in writing, in their own language, the substance of each les-
son " ; in the grammar department of three years " they shall be taught all the lessons
in Butler's Large Grammar to syntax. They shall also be taught to parse words in
simple sentences not found in the grammar." This is for the first year. In the second
" the same ... to prosody ; to compare adjectives and adverbs, to decline nouns and
pronouns and to conjugate verbs, in writing. They shall also be taught to parse all the
parsing exercises in said lessons and to parse words in sentences not found in the gram-
mar." For the third year Butler's grammar was prescribed complete. The girls' high
school had English grammar and composition throughout the first year. The boys' high
school seems to have had no grammar.

Philadelphia had no grammar in the four years of the primary or five years of the
secondary departments. In the grammar-school department of five years the instruction
was the most elaborate the writer has found. In the first and second years Hart's " Intro-
duction " or Parker's through the nine parts of speech, including the simple rules ef
syntax ; in the third year Hall's or Parker's introductory work completed and construction
of simple sentences within the same limits ; in the fourth year Hall's or Parker's English
Grammar commenced and continued to the rules of syntax ; parsing and construction of
sentences and correction of false syntax ; in the fifth year Hall's or Parker's completed
and reviewed. Directions for teachers are : '' The disputed points or matters far above
the pupils' capacity should never be dwelt upon. The teacher's object must be rather to
impart such a knowledge of the construction of the language as will enable the pupil to
speak and write with a reasonable degree of correctness."

•'Am. J. of Ed., 1870,643.

Chapter V.

TRADITIONAL METHODS OF TEACHING LATIN GRAMMAR
TRANSFERRED TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

From the very beginning it seems that English grammar was
intended to perform for the mother tongue the same functions Latin
grammar performed for that language. The aim of grammar
schools — to make finished writers and speakers of Latin — was paral-
leled by the aim of English schools in America, patterned after
Franklin's Academy — to make finished writers and speakers of the
vernacular. In each the grammatical study of the languages was fun-
damental. As the requirements of practical life in America seemed
to demand less Latin and more English, and as the English schools
more and more took on the dignity formerly held by the Latin schools,
English grammar advanced correspondingly to a more prominent
place in the curriculum. This identity of function is powerfully
supported by the striking similarity in content and in methods of
study as expounded by textbook makers.

The present and the succeeding chapter trace the changes in meth-
ods of teaching which have marked the successive stages of English
grammar in American schools between 1750 and 1850.68 Roughly,
this aspect of the study may be outlined in two grand divisions, each
consisting of three subdivisions of approximately 25 years :

I. Grammar as an art.

(a) Latin period, 1750 to 1784.

(b) Rote period, 1784 to 1823.

(c) Parsing period, 1823 to 1847.

II. Grammar as a science.

(a) Analysis period, 1848 to 1873.

(b) Rhetorical period, 1873 to 1891.

(c) Incidental study period, 1891 to 1920.

The two main divisions are based upon the fundamental conception
of grammar held by the leading grammarians.69 About 1850 the idea

88 A later study will carry the Investigation down to 1920.

• The term " leading grammarians " is perhaps misleading. The connotation intended
is to designate authors leading in influence upon school practices. In this sense Murray
is the leading grammarian in this country up to 1850. The date of his textbook (1795)
is not selected as a dividing point in the outline, because the date of Webster's Grammar

103

104 ENGLISH GKAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

that grammar is an art was changed to the idea that grammar is a
science. To the various subdivisions names have been given on the
basis of the one method predominating during the period involved.
The chronological limits of the periods have been marked by the
date of an innovating textbook of widespread influence or by some
other important or culminating event explained in the course of the
discussion.

The year 1848 does not mark a sharp breaking away from the
conception of grammar as an art, for progress in methods of teach-
ing can not be marked by exact dates. Long before any important
change becomes prevalent in all or in almost all schools, far-seeing
teachers are discarding the old and experimenting with the new.
For instance, before 1848 some grammarians had substituted the sen-
tence for the word as the unit of instruction ; long after 1848 many
textbook makers clung tenaciously to the word as the unit of study.
Grammarians earlier than Greene (1848) had made their point of
departure the analysis of sentences; but Greene seems to have come at
the opportune moment, when schoolmen were aroused, when disgust
with old methods had reached a crisis. His book became exceedingly
popular ; he had many followers. The date of his grammar marks the
chief turning point in our discussion of methods. In a similar way
the significance of the major event which marks each step in the out-
line will be considered in detail through 1850. The point to be borne
in mind is that great changes in methods are not instantaneously
inaugurated ; they are matters of slow and painful growth.

One further word of explanation. The names given to the six
periods are titles of predominating metheds. A possible criticism
of this nomenclature is that parsing, for example, is as old as gram-
mar itself and will continue in some form as long as grammar is
studied. Granted that this is true. The evidence presented for the
years 1823-1848 seems to indicate that amid the passing of the old
and the coming in of the new methods parsing was the method par
excellence. The same comment is pertinent to all the other periods
except the first. The confusing element here is that Latinized meth-
ods exerted a strong influence in a great majority of schools through
the entire nineteenth century and are with us to-day, though happily
in diminishing emphasis. Noah Webster was right when he said
that it requires the club of Hercules wielded by the arm of a giant to
destroy the hydra of educational prejudice.

(1784) more closely approximates the close of the Revolution. Moreover, in influence upon
the schools Webster and Murray were very similar. Regarded in another sense, Murray
was far from a leading grammarian, for he was a confessed compiler, frankly indebted to
Lowth; Priestley, and the British grammar. He was a follower, not a leader, in constructive
grammatical scholarship, being in this regard below Noah Webster. Throughout this
chapter grammatical thinkers have our attention only in so far as it can be shown that
they exerted a direct influence upon the school practices of their day.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 105

The methods of the early Latinists 71 seem to have cast their baneful
influence over the entire four centuries during which the vernacular
has been building for itself a suitable grammatical study. At any
rate, the Latin and the Kote periods are really one and the same. The
writer has no particular pride in maintaining strict chronological
balance in his outline, except that he thinks it helpful to divide the
period 1750 to 1823 into two parts. The other five periods are useful
limitations both as to time and title. The following study of the
interrelations of these periods may throw some light upon what has
been heretofore a confused and confusing field.

1. GRAMMAR AS AN ART.

An examination of a series of definitions of grammar taken from
influential textbooks 72 indicates that grammar was considered an art
in the texts which determined the earliest instruction in America.

Ben Johnson : Grammar is the art of true and well-speaking a language ; the
writing of it is an accident.74

Lily : Grammatica est recte scribendi, atque loquendi ars."

Wharton : Grammar is the Art of Writing, and Speaking, well/"

Brightland :

Grammar do's all the Art and Knowledge teach,
According to the Use of every Speech,
How our Thoughts most justly may express
In Words, together join'd, in Sentences.76

Greenwood: Grammar is the Art of Speaking rightly. 1 have left out the Art
of Writing, because that is an Accident of Speech, and none but the essential or
chief Things ought to be put into a definition."

Dilworth: Grammar is the Science of Letters, or the Art of Writing and
Speaking properly and syntactically.78

Fisher : Grammar is the Art of expressing the Relation of Things in Con-
struction, with due Accent in Speaking, and Orthography in Writing, according
to the Custom, of those whose Language we learn.™

British : Grammar is the Art of Expressing the Relations of Words in Con-
struction, with due Quantity in Speaking and Orthography in Writing.80

Lowth : Grammar is the Art of rightly expressing our Thoughts by Words.81

Priestley : The grammar of any tongue is a collection of observations on the
structure of it, and a system of rules for the proper use of it.88

71 " Latinists " is the term repeatedly used by Franklin.

72 An attempt is made here to select for comparison books which immediately preceded
the beginnings of grammatical instruction in America : First, books upon which English
grammar was founded ; second, books which, printed In England in the eighteenth cen-
tury, were imported or reprinted in America and used as textbooks ; and, third, books
written by American authors which were most influential before 1825. The text selected
and the editions used are named in the bibliography.

73 Lily, op. clt., 1. 78 Dilworth, op. cit., 85.

74 Johnson, op. cit., 3. 7» Fisher, op. cit., 1.

75 Wharton, op. cit., 1. 80 British, op. cit., 1.
n Brightland, op. cit., 1. 81 Lowth, op. cit, 1.

77 Greenwood, op. cit., 48. a Priestly, op. cit., 1.

106 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

-

Alexander : Grammar teaches the Art of expressing and communicating o
thoughts with verbal propriety.83

Murray: English Grammar is the art of speaking and writing the English
language with propriety."4

Webster: Grammar is the art of communicating thoughts by words with
propriety and dispatch.85

Brown: English Grammar is the art of speaking and writing the English Lan-
guage correctly.88

Brightland uses the definition "Art and Knowledge, according to
the Use of every Speech, how we our Thoughts express in Sentences " ;
that is, the idea — knowledge of the use of language in sentences —
seems to be prominent. But our feeling that the author of Bright-
land's textbook may have had an inkling in 1706 of the modern con-
ception of grammar as a science is quickly dispelled. We find him
explaining in a footnote : " The modern as well as the old gram-
marians have given us various Definitions of this useful Art." 87
Greenwood, who is a close follower of Jonson, in his edition of 1711,
calls writing an accident; but in his third edition (1747) he changes
his definition to " English Grammar is the art of speaking and writ-
ing the English language with propriety." This definition Murray
copies exactly.

Dilworth uses the word " science," but he speaks of the science of
letters, which he considers the art of speaking and writing properly.
Priestley certainly states the modern conception in his definition, but
his apparant insight is misleading, for, in spite of certain innovations
in method to be considered later, he treats grammar as an art. The
true nature of grammar had apparently not even remotely suggested
itself to Webster when in 1784 he wrote his first grammar. At that
time his definition is : " Grammar is the Art of communicating
thought." By 1790 the light seems to have dimly dawned upon him,
for in the preface to his " Rudiments of Grammar " he affirms :
" Rules are drawn from the most general and approved practice, and
serve to teach young students how far their own practice in speaking
agrees with the general practice."88 In a later grammar (1831) he
goes still further. His definition now is : UA system of general prin-
ciples, derived from the national distinction of words, deduced from
the customary forms of speech in the nation using that language." 89
Here, certainly, Webster has gone far toward the modern conception
that grammar comes after a language has been in use; that it is a
statement of principles of usage as found in the spoken and written
communication of the most expert. The principles of this science are
to be found by minute analysis of wholes into parts, with consequent

88 Alexander, op. cit., 3. 86 Brown, op. cit., 15.

84 Murray, op. cit., 7. 8T Brightland, op. cit., 1, footnote.

85 Webster, op. cit, 5. 88 Webster, Rudiments, 2.
88 Webster, An Improved Gram, of the Eng. Tongue, 3.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 107

generalizations to establish general principles. But Webster at first
apparently had only a mere glimmer of the truth. He treated gram-
mar as an art of building up wholes from smaller parts.

Finally, Goold Brown, whom we shall see even as late as 1851 the
last prominent fighter of the old guard, still championed the concep-
tion of grammar as an art when nearly everyone else had abandoned
it. He said in 1823 : " Grammar is the art of speaking and writing
the language correctly." This was the common conception held by
grammarians up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The force which fastened this conception so firmly is undoubtedly
the force of tradition. Even the word grammar is from the Greek
gramma, a letter. These characters are the elements of written lan-
guage, as articulate sounds are the elements of spoken language.
Hence, from the very derivation of the word, one seems bound to
start with the simplest elements and build up the more complex forms.
The natural and easy way to learn had always seemed to be to pro-
ceed from the element to the complex structure. Letters, syllables,
words, sentences — this makes a seemingly more logical sequence than
the reverse process. The child says " water " if he is thirsty. To-day
it is recognized that he means a sentence — " I want water." Conse-
quently the process of learning in both reading and writing (composi-
tion) to-day proceeds from the whole to the part. But to attain this
new conception has been a matter of slow and painful growth. In it
we have come to realize that grammar, the science of sentences, is a
matter of late study, if, indeed, it need ever be taught to children
trained by imitation to speak and write accurately.

The truth is that the term grammar — the art of letters — is a mis-
nomer, considering our modern conception of the subject. However,
our intent here is merely to state the apparent cause of the earlier
misconception.

2. METHODS USED IN STUDYING LILY, AND LATIN GRAMMAR IN
GENERAL, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

We shall now consider how the methods of study pursued in Latin
grammars were carried over into the study of English. In " The
Epistle to the Reader," in all editions of Lily, we find specific recom-
mendations as to classroom procedure.

First, Colet urges that progress be very slow ; 90 also that there be
liberal oral rehearsing of all parts until they be perfectly mastered
mechanically.91 Perfect " without book " is an expression one meets

•° " The first and chiefest point is, that the diligent master make not the schollar haste
too much." Lily, Epistle, 2.

wMake him to rehearse so, that until he hath perfectly that, which is behinde, he
suffer him not to go forwarde ; . . . the best and chiefest point ... is, that the schollar
have in minde so perfectly that, that he hath learned, and understood it so, that not only
it be not a stoppe for him, but also a light and helpe unto the residue that followeth."
Ibid.

108 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

again and again in pedagogical discussions of the time.92 This was
to be accomplished by numerous repetitions, frequent rehearsals, and
periodical examinations by the teacher.93

In this laborious fashion the pupil is to make himself master of
every declension of nouns and conjugation of verbs. He is to be able
to decline and conjugate forward and backward.94 Until this is done
the pupils are not allowed to go forward.

From this mastery of paradigms the pupil is to pass to an equally
difficult study of the " Concordes." These are to be learned with
" plaine and sundrie examples, and continuall rehearsall of things
learned, and especially the daily declining of the verb, and turning it
into all fashions." 95 Schoolmasters are advised that subsequent les-
sons will be easy if " the foregrounds be well and thoroughly beaten
in." 96 Probably no pun was intended, but the phrase perhaps gave
church authority for a common method of persuading reluctant pupils
to their tasks.

After these studies of the concords the pupil is to " learn some petty
book containing . . . good plain lessons of honesty and godliness." 9T
Then is to follow the translation of English sentences from the book
into Latin and the learning of the rules of syntax which govern the
construction. The Latin sentences are to be repeated in the words of
the book.98 This sets another premium upon slavish memorizing. In
all this the pupil is never to be idle, but " alwaies occupied in a con-
tinual rehearsing, and looking back again to those things they had
learned." 99 Constant reviewing is the unbroken order of the day.
Every process is based upon knowledge of the rules.100

•* " That they have daily some speciall exercise of the memory, by repeating somewhat
without booke ; as a part in their rules the foure first dales of the weeke ... all the rules
of the weeke on the Saturday." Brinsley, Ludus Literaris, 51.

M In East Retford the first part of the morning in the first four days of the school week
was devoted to saying over " one of the Eight Parts of Speech like as the manner and
fashion of all grammar Schools, and upon Friday Sum es tui, with his compounds, as
shall seem to the School-master convenient." Carlisle, op. cit., II, 282, Statutes, 1552.

" This is all that I have used : To let them reade it (The Accedence) over every one by
himselfe by lessons. . . . Thus I make them reade over their Accidence . . . before they
do get it without booke. Secondly, for getting it without booke, I cause them ... to say
it as oft as they can.' Brinsley, op. cit., 53.

•* " Wherein it is profitable, not only that he can orderly decline his noune, and his
verbe, but everyway, forward, backward, by cases, by persons : that neither case of noune,
nor person of verbe can be required, that hee cannot without stoppe or studie tell. And
unto this time I count not the schollar perfect nor readie to go any further. . . ." Lily,
op. cit., 3.

»B Ibid.

*>Ibid., 3.

"Ibid., 4.

••"Therefore (from the book) take some little sentence, as it lieth, and learne to make
the same out of English into Latine, not seeing the booke, or construing it there upon
. . . which sentence well made, and as nigh as may be with the wordes of the booke."
Lily, op. cit., 3.

"Ibid., 4.

ioo " jf tne maister give him an English booke and cause him ordinarily to turne it every
day some part into Latine. This exercise cannot be done without his rules." Ibid., 4.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 109

The final step is teaching pupils to speak Latin. This is to be
accomplished by drill until " a man is clean past the use of this gram-
mar booke," until he is as " readie as his booke." Then he is perfected
" in the tongue handsomely." *

In order to determine more certainly what the classroom practices
of the early Latin study were, we may supplement the summary of
suggestions of Colet, in Lily, with the advice of the schoolmaster,
Brinsley. His book was written in 1612, when Lily was most popular
in the grammar schools. It may be taken as reliable evidence of the
practice of his day, perhaps in the most advanced practice. In " The
Grammar School " Brinsley devotes a chapter to the topic " How to
make children perfect in the Accidence." The following chapters dis-
cuss the other parts of instruction in Latin. Brinsley's exposition
appears to be entirely consistent with Colet's, given above. He has his
pupils (1) read over their lessons many times; (2) learn every rule,
with title, " without booke "; (3) recite, one by one; (4) get accidence
without book; (5) repeat the beginnings of rules in a connected title,
" without booke " (he insists that the principal duty is to get rules
without book) ; (6) go through weekly repetitions to prevent forget-
ting; (7) learn very little at a time (the pupil is to be letter-perfect in
each part before proceeding) ; and (8) answer questions in the book.

He has the master (1) explain difficult parts, construe and show
meanings; (2) use the question-and-answer method; (3) constantly
call for examples of rules — the examples given in the book; (4) hear
parts, making the pupil repeat his rule; (5) spend a month in making
the accidence perfect; (6) give continual practice in parsing; (7)
keep the rules in mind (by making scholars learn perfectly, constant
repetition, continual care for parts, repeating often the summes of
rules, applying examples) ; (8) endeavor to make the grammar a dic-
tionary in their minds; (9) apply a prescribed formula for constru-
ing (construe the vocative first, the principal verb next, then the
adverb, then the case which the verb governs, and, last, the substantive
and adjective) ; (10) hear them parse every word as they construe,
accompanying the parsing with rule and example; (11) follow by
theme writing and verse making; and (12) give constant practice in
the upper forms in speaking Latin.2

1 An interesting pedagogical doctrine, certainly sound, appears paradoxically in the
midst of this insistence upon minute mastery of details. It is a caution against mere rote
memorizing. " This when he can perfectly doe, and hath learned every point, not by rote
but by reason, and is cunninger in the understanding of the thing, than in rehearsing of
the words . . ." Lily, op. cit., 3. Thus as early as 1541, at least, was uttered a protest
against what was to be for nearly three centuries the curse of all grammar teaching in
the mother tongue.

•Brinsley, op. cit., 53-145.

110 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

In this list the endeavor has been to select 20 of the leading prin-
ciples of instruction advocated by Philoponus, the character in Brins-
ley's dialogue, who represents the better type of teaching.3 In some
cases the suggestions have been taken from the mouth of Spondeus,
the representative in the dialogue of the poorer teachers of his day.

To the testimony of Colet and Brinsley may be added the practices
of Roger Ascham in teaching Latin grammar, as set forth in " The
Schoolmaster," 1563.

(A) Preparatory: Learn perfectly the eight parts of speech and
the joining together of substantives with adjectives, verbs with nouns,
relatives with antecedents.

(B) Double translation: 1. The master is to construe the model
book for the child that he may understand.

2. Then the pupil is to parse and construe, as the master has done
for him, often enough for the pupil to understand.

3. The lesson is to be translated into English in a paper book.

4. After an hour he is to translate his English back into the Latin
in another paper book.

5. The master is to examine these translations and lead the pupil
until he is able " to fetch out of his grammar every Bule for every
example ; so as the grammar book be ever in the scholar's hands, and
also used of him as a Dictionary for every present Use."

6. The master is to compare the pupil's Latin with the original in
the model book.

" With this way of good Understanding the matter, plain constru-
ing, diligent parsing, cheerful admonishing, and heedful amending
of Faults; never leaving behind just praise for well doing: I would
have the Scholar brought up."

(C) Analysis: 1. Give him longer lessons to translate. "Begin
to teach him, both in Nouns and Verbs, what is Proprium, and what is
Translabum (figurative), what Synonym, what Diversion, which be
Contraria, and which be most notable Phrases, in all his Lecture
(reading)."

2. Let him write four of these forenamed six diligently marked
out of every lesson in a third paper book.4

(D) Reading: 1. "I would have him read now, a good deal at
every Lecture, some book of Cicero, Caesar, etc."

2. " He shall now use daily Translation, but only construe again
and parse. ... Yet let him not omit in these Books his former
Exercise, in mastering diligently and writing orderly."

8 An admirable statement of the methods used in the grammar schools in 1818 appears
in Carlisle, " Endowed Grammar School," 1818, 828-30. It begins : " When the Pupil has
committed to memory. The Accidence, Propria quae maribus, etc. . . , The account
tallies in very many details with the methods laid down by Colet and Brinsley, and indi-
cates that Latin instruction had remained in scope and method relatively stable for three
hundred years.

* Ascham, The Schoolmaster, Mayor, 1-9.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. Ill

3. The master is to translate some easy Latin into good English,
the pupil to translate it into Latin again.

4. The master is to compare the pupiPs work with the original.
(E) Third kind of translation: 1. The master is to write some

letter in English, as if from the boy's father, or copy some fable.
2. The pupil is to translate it into Latin.5

3. LATIN METHODS CARRIED DIRECTLY TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

MEMORIZATION.

" The book itself will make anyone a grammarian." Thus spoke
Goold Brown in his grammar of 1823. 6 His statement fittingly char-
terizes the attitude of teachers and writers 7 throughout the entire
course of English grammar down to 1823, and, unfortunately, the
same attitude has not entirety disappeared to-day. We have just seen
a summary of methods used in teaching Latin grammar. We now
turn to the task of showing that they were carried over directly into
English in the spirit voiced by Goold Brown as late as 1823.

MASTERING PARTS IN ORDER.

This principle is worthy of mention first because it underlies almost
all of the methods to be considered later. We have seen that Colet, in
his " Epistle," asserts that " the first and chiefest point is, that the
diligent Maister make not the scholar haste too much " and that he
make him get " perfectly that which is behind " before " he suffer
him to go forwards." 8 Brinsley supports this plan. The children
are first to get their letters, then to spell, then to join syllables
together, then to go through the A B C's and primer, etc.9 To be sure,

6 Ibid., 92.

8 Brown, op. cit., preface, VII.

7 The efforts of the past century to break away from the Latin methods are reserved for
the following chapter. In the preceding section were shown various supplementary
devices, parallel reading, dictation, copy books, writing exercises, oral work, dating back
to Brinsley, Ascham, Hoole, and Colet. In both the Latin instruction and the first
vernacular instruction these devices were strictly subordinated to the great triumvirate of
methods — memorization, parsing, and false syntax. They remained strictly subordinate
and incidental until about 1850. But during the century preceding *850 the use of
" petty books " gradually evolved into the study of English literature ; dictation, the use
of copy books, and writing exercises by a similar process of evolution became composition
as we now know it, and the simple oral exercises of the earlier day became oral composi-
tion of the present. The practice of orations and disputations in Latin, common in both
grammar schools and colleges before English entered the curriculum, was very influential
in bringing these exercises into English schools.

The process of evolution was but partially completed by 1850, because literature, com-
position, and oral work were all subordinate to grammar. Beginning about 1850 evolu-
tion has made these branches of the vernacular more robust. The best school practice of
to-day makes grammatical study strictly subordinate to them. The point is that since
1850 this complete reversal between grammar, on the one hand, and vernacular branches,
on the other, has taken place.

This statement, anticipating discussion not covered by this thesis, has been made here
in order to place the extremely Latinized methods of the Latin and rote periods in sharp
contrast with the best methods of to-day.

•Lily, op. cit., 2.

• Brinsley, op. cit., 15 et seq.

112 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

he is in this instance speaking of learning to read ; but it makes the
inference all the more inevitable. In all studies the method was
from the part to the whole, each part to be mastered perfectly in
order. The pupil reads over and over the small part of the text
assigned, forward and backward, until mechanically perfect.10

In the beginning of the eighteenth century Brightland and Green-
wood (1706 and 1712) urge for English grammar exactly the same
procedure.11 The former describes his method. " We begin with
what is first to be learnt, that what follows may be understood ; and
proceed thus step by step, till we come to the last and most difficult,
and which depends on all that goes before it." 12

Greenwood also indicates the mastery of part by part :

And every Body must readily grant that the Way to come to a true and clear
Knowledge of any Art, is to explain Things unknown, by Things that are
known.13

In the middle of the century, also, the author of the British Gram-
mar explains the steps of a recitation :

Spell every word of the lesson, by syllables; give the signification of each
word; state the part of speech, with reasons, etc.14 After the Scholars know
their Letters ground them well in their Monosyllables with the soft and hard
Sounds of C and G. This they will soon learn from Word of Mouth, by frequent
Repetition. . . ,15

Sewell, toward the end of the century, assigns " small portions to
be got by heart," 16 and Brown, 1823, still continues the practice. " In
etymology and syntax, he should be alternately exercised in learning
small portions of his book and then applying them in parsing, till the
whole is rendered familiar." 17

The evidence thus presented is in strict accord with the textbook
matter of all grammars. So long as orthography, etymology, syntax,
and prosody were considered the four divisions of grammar, so long
as it was thought of as an art, a whole to be built up " mosaic-like out
of paradigms and syntax rules "; 18 so long as schoolmasters in gen-
eral remained woefully ignorant and were competent only " to hear "
recitations, verbatim, about matters they little understood,19 just so
long this procedure, tedious and slow, from part to part, was fastened

*>rbid., 19.

11 This is in exact accord with the educational theory of Herbart : " In the case of all
essential elementary information — knowledge of grammar, arithmetic, and geometry — it
will be found expedient to begin with the simplest elements long before any practical
application is made. ' Herbart, Outlines. 129.

12 Brightland, preface, 7th page (pages unnumbered in text).

13 Greenwood, preface, 2.
"British, preface, XIV.
18 Fisher, preface, IX.

16 Sewell, preface, VI.

17 Brown, preface, VI.

18 W. D. Widgery, quoted by Watson, Gram. Sch., 285.

19 See Resolutions of Germantown School Committee, Chap. II, p. 28.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 113

upon the schools. The evidence presented shows little or no progress
from Lily (1510) to Brown (1823).

MEMORIZING RULES.

Of course, this fundamental principle — mastering each part in
order — could give but one meaning for the term mastering; it was
slavish memorizing, nothing more nor less.

Colet and Brinsley insist that rules are to be learned and repeatedly
rehearsed until pupils can " say them without book." This, says
Brinsley, is one of the chief points aimed at.

To teach scholars to say without book all the usual necessary rules; to
construe the Grammar rules; to give the meaning, use, and order of the rules;
to shew the examples, and to apply them; which being well performed, will
make all other learning easie and pleasant.20

He insists that the master is to have some exercise of the memory
daily 21 and that —

in hearing parts, aske them first the chiefe question or questions of each rule in
order ; then make them every one say his rule or rules, and in all rules of con-
struction, to answere you in what words the force of the example lyeth, both
governour and governed.22

Moreover, both Philoponus and Spoudeus agree that this perfect
memorizing is the principal method of procedure. Spondeus : " Oh,
but this is a matter, that is most accounted of with us ; to have them
very perfect in saying all their Grammar without booke, even every
rule." Philoponus : " To this I answere you ; that this indeede is
one principall thing." 23 This is to be accomplished as follows.
Spoudeus : " I have onely used to cause my Schollers to learne it with-
out booke, and a little to construe it ... by oft saying Parts." 24

Greenwood, though advanced somewhat, indicates also the memo-
rizing method. He has a device which avoids the necessity of learning
every word of the text. Passages most necessary to be learned at the
first going over are marked by an asterisk or star (*). "By what is
to be learned, and what passed by, the discretion of the teacher will
better determine." 25

That the year 1750 had shown little progress is indicated by Dil-
worth, who, speaking of learning to spell, holds against spelling by
ear. " There can be no true Method of Spelling without Rule." 2e
The British Grammar advises that " it will redound to a Scholar's
Advantage to begin the Repetition of the Grammar as soon as he can
read it." 27 Lowth, too, agrees as to learning grammar.

80 Brinsley, op. cit., 74. * Ibid., 70.

81 Ibid., 51. 25 Greenwood, preface, 5.
22 Ibid., 69. 2«Dilworth, preface, VIII.
88 Ibid., 85. "British, preface, III.

60258°— 22 8

114 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

The principal design of a Grammar of any Language is to teach us to express
ourselves with propriety in that Language. The plain way of doing this is to
lay down rules, and to illustrate them by examples.28

And Brown, in 1823, again shows the close adherence to the method
of centuries before:

The only successful method of teaching grammar is, to cause the principal
definitions and rules to be committed thoroughly to memory, that they may ever
afterwards be readily applied.29

In 1767 Buchanan, in his " Kegular English Syntax," says:

Let them first spell this exercise (some good English classic) off by giving
the rules of spelling ; next the various significations of the word ; let them give
account of the parts of speech one by one, applying the rule of syntax.30

A commentator on the methods of studying grammar in 1810 thus
describes a schoolroom scene:

We learned the first six lines (Young Ladies' Accidence) which contained the
names of the ten " sorts of words " and recited them at least 20 times to our
neighbors; but, when called to the master's desk to recite them, our minds
became a perfect blank. We stood mute and trembling . . . and were con-
demned to stand on a box with our face to the wall, till we could recite the
lesson. Of course, we hated English grammar from that day forward.31

The famous Asa Rand comments on methods of his boyhood about
1790:

In the period of my boyhood we had strange notions of the science of gram-
mar. We did not dream of anything practical or applicable to the languge we
were using every day till we had " been through " the grammar several times
and parsed several months. Why? Because we were presented at once with a
complete set of definitions and rules which might perplex a Murray or Webster
without any development of principles, any illustrations we could understand,
any application of the words to objects which they represent. We supposed
that the dogmas of our " gram books " were the inventions of learned men,
curious contrivances to carry the words of a sentence through a certain opera-
tion which we called parsing, rather for the gratification of curiosity than for
any practical benefit. The rule in grammar would parse the word, ... as the
rule in arithmetic would " do the sum " and " give the answer." And with such
exploits we were satisfied. Great was our admiration for the inventive power
of those great men, vwho had been the lights of the grammatical world.32

Also one more witness as to the practice of memory work, after the
Lancastrian system was in vogue :

In those days we studied grammar by committing a portion of a small book
(Accidence) to memory and reciting it to the teacher. If he was engaged, the
lesson was recited to one of the highest class. . . . The rule was that the whole
book should be recited literally, three times, before the pupils were allowed to
apply a word of it in parsing sentences, and as no explanation was ever made of

28 Lowth, preface, X.

29 Brown, VI.

80 Quoted in Ed. Rev., XII, 491.

31 C. S. J. (1850), 74.

83 See Am, Ann. of Ed, and Ins. (1833), 162,

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 115

any principle the pupil was as well qualified as the teacher to hear the words
repeated.83

William Ward, a schoolmaster of 30 years' standing, author of "A
Practical Grammar," gives a minute description of the method used
in his school about 1780, the public grammar school at Beverley, in
the county of York, England :

Our Way of using the Book is this: if a child has not learned any Thing of
the Latin Declensions and Conjugations, we make him get the English Forms
by heart ; if otherwise, we make him read the English Forms several times over,
till he remembers them in a good measure; then we hear him read the Descrip-
tions of the several parts of speech; and after he has done so, and has some
notion of the Meaning of each, we oblige him for some weeks to read three or
four Sentences twice or thrice a Day, in an easy English Book, and to tell the
Part of Speech to which each word belongs. When the Child is pretty ready
at distinguishing the Parts of Speech, we make him get by heart the Rules of
Concord in Verse, and teach him how to apply them, by resolving the Sentences
in some English Book. When this is done, we make him write out several of
the other rules, and get them by heart, and shew him how to apply them like-
wise, by parsing, or resolving what he reads by these Rules. And thus by
Degrees, children become Masters of all the material Parts of the Book without
much Difficulty."

The educational literature of America concerning this period (1750-
1823) is filled with evidence that memorizing methods predominated
practice. Wickersham quotes a master of 1730 who said : " I find no
way that goes beyond that of repeating, both in spelling, reading,
writing, and cyphering." 35 A school boy of 1765 records that " at
six .... I learned the English grammar in Dilworth by heart." 36 In
1780 Principal Pearson, of Phillips Andover, testifies that " a class
of thirty repeats a page and a half of Latin Grammar ; then follows
the Accidence Tribe, who repeat two, three, four, five, and ten pages
each." 37 A Princeton college youth of 1799 wrote his brother, " com-
mitted to memory verbatim 50 pages of English Grammar." 38 Before
the Revolution what little grammar was taught in Boston was con-
fined almost entirely to committing and reciting rules.39

W. B. Fowle, a prominent schoolman of Boston, says of the schools
of 1795 : " Pupils at our school were required to learn Bingham's
Young Ladies' Accidence by heart three times. . . . We were two or
three years in grammar." 40 Murray, author of the grammar most
widely used, announced that in later editions he had been careful to
rephrase his definitions smoothly, that they might be memorized and

83 C. S. J. (1850), 337.

34 Ward, English Grammar, preface. X.

35 Wickersham, op. cit., 214.

36 C. S. J. (1850), 3.

3T Quoted, Brown, Mid. Sch„ 262.

88 Correspondence quoted in full. Snow, Col. Cur., 116.
39 Herman Humphrey, Am. J. of Ed., XIII, 127.
*°C. S. J. (1850), 5.

113 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

,

retained more easily.41 The minutes of the trustees of Oyster Ba
Academy, New York, prescribe the memorizing method as follows:
"(1) The Monitor, to be read daily as the last lesson; (2) Webster's
Grammar, to be read or repeated from memory; (3) The Testament
or Bible, to be read . . ." 42

The evidence seems to indicate that the slavish memorization of
rules, centuries old in schoolroom practice, had made but little prog-
ress from the time of Lily to Goold Brown. It wTas carried with all its
terrors directly into the study of English grammar.43

DEVICES TO AID IN MEMORIZING.

As complete memorization was the order of the day it is not surpris-
ing to find teachers endeavoring to find devices to aid the pupils in
this arduous task. So far we have found records of five distinct
devices tending to accomplish this purpose.

The first is constant repetition. Colet insists on daily defining
rules ; 44 Brinsley strongly urges repetitions.45 Teachers of the eight-
eenth century continued the practice of strengthening memory by
constant repetition. The British Grammar urges masters to have
their pupils repeat the entire grammar in portions once a month,46
and Sewell especially requires of his pupils frequent repetitions of
paradigms.47

The second device is rhyming. We have already referred to Brins-
ley's plan of having pupils read the rules in meter. Rules of polite-
ness in verse were old in Latin and were common in English; for

41 Murray, 12.

42 Fitzpatrick, Ed. Views and Inf. of D. Clinton, 22.

43 An interesting proof of memorization is found in the copy of Alger's Murray, used by
the writer, the stereotyped edition of 1825. The book belonged to one George A. Severing ;
his signature is dated Roxbury, December, 1828. Evidently his teacher had not been satis-
fled with Murray's definition of grammar and had dictated the following substitute :
" Grammar teaches the arrangement of words according to the idiom or dialect of any
particular people, and that excellency of pronunciation which enables us to speak and
write a language agreeable to reason and correct usages." This is an unusually good
definition for 1828 and indicates that this teacher was moving toward the modern concep-
tion of the science. But young Severins has written this definition out in full four times
on the fly leaves and the blank pages at the end of the book, evidently making sure that
he is letter-perfect.

Samuel G. Goodrich, telling of his boyhood school days in Ridgefield, Conn., about 1785,
says : " The grammar was a clever book. . . . Neither Master Stebbins nor his scholars
ever fathomed its depths. They floundered about in it, as if in a quagmire, and after
some time came out of it pretty nearly as they went in, though perhaps a little obfusticated
by the dim and dusty atmosphere of those labyrinths." Am. J. of Ed., XIII, 139.

44 Lily, preface, 3.

45 " No evening is to be passed without some little exercise against the morning."
Brinsley, op. cit, 164. " To imprint it by repetition the next morning, together with their
evening exercises." Ibid., 152. A fuller explanation is given by Brinsley of insuring ease
in remembering rules : Make the scholars learn them perfectly ; give frequent repetition ;
instill continual care for parts; examine them daily; when parsing, turn every hard rule
to use ; in higher forms give repetition less often. Ibid., 85. Brinsley also mentions two
subdevices. He would have the pupils mark their books, copying from the teacher's book,
to assist memory (ibid., 141) and would have them " read the rules over in a kind of
singing voice after the manner of running of the verse." Ibid., 73.

«• British, preface, III. « Sewell, preface, VIII.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 117

example, in " The Schoole of Vertue," 48 Brinsley, speaking of verse,
says : " To reade them over in a kinde of singing voice after the run-
ning of the verse. . . ." 49 Only two of the grammars here inten-
sively studied adopt the method of rhyming for rules — Brightland's
and Ward's. The former asserts that he has " put all the Rules
into as smooth and sonorous Verse as the Nature of the Subject
wou'cl bear ... to give them the greater Light." He adds an ex-
planation in prose following the Jesuit Alvarus in his Latin gram-
mar " which is used in all the Schools of Europe, except England."
Brightland maintains that " verse is more easily learnt ; that Rhimes
help, one end recalling the other." These lessen the burden to mem-
ory.50 In Ward's Grammar rules are^put in verses that rhyme, with a
repetition in prose of what each rule contains. For the 35 rules of
syntax Ward has 170 verses.

The third device to assist memory is the use of examples. Brinsley
goes so far as to insist that in recitations the example is to be given
with " his " rule.51 He further makes them give examples :
Apply examples to rules; learn every rule perfectly as they go forward; read
them over their rule leisurely and distinctly; construe the rules and apply
examples for them ; learn all the rules until the pupil can " beate it out of
himselfe." ra

This is a common practice in all the more elaborate grammars. Lowth
especially makes point of illustrative examples accompanying each
rule.53

The fourth device was selection of parts. The first textbook maker
who desired to relieve memory by proper selection of parts to be
memorized was Greenwood. In his grammar he distinguished the
more important parts by printing them in larger type. Fisher did
not desire his pupils to be troubled with learning the exceptions to
rules.54 Herein we find further evidence that it had been the prac-
tice to require the learning by heart of rules, examples, and exceptions.
Murray uses the same device as Greenwood, commenting on the value
of selections as follows :

The more important rules, definitions, and observations, and which are there-
fore the most proper to be committed to memory, are printed in larger type;
whilst rules and remarks that are of less importance, that extend or diversify
the general idea, or that serve as explanations, are contained in the small
letter.86

The fifth device is very old, namely, the question and an wer. Haz-
litt says that he has small volumes on cookery and gardening of the
Middle Ages which are thrown into the interlocutory form, the most
apt to impress names on the minds of the pupils.56 He also gives a

«Eggleston, op. cit., 214.
"Brinsley, op. cit, 73.
60 Brightland, preface, VI.
"Brinsley, op. cit., 82.
"Ibid., 70-1.

53 Lowth, preface, X.

54 Fisher, preface, X.
68 Murray, preface, 1.

"Hazlitt, Sch. Books and Sch. Masters, 28.

.

118 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

series of rules and exercises in the form of question and answer in
textbook of 1509.57 Brinsley advocates this method, but has Philop
nus complain concerning books of this character — that he has bee
compelled to leave off entirely ; that none are suitable ; therefore h
has made one for himself " having all the Questions and Answers
arising most directly out of the words of the Rules." 58

Of the 12 grammars here studied five retain the question-and
answer method — Greenwood's, Dilworth's, Fisher's, the British, and
Priestley's. About the end of the eighteenth century the device seems
to have gone largely out of vogue. Priestley says : " I have retained
the method of question and answer . . . because I am still persuaded
it is both the mOst convenient f or, the master and the most intelligible
to the scholar." 59 However, the question-and-answer method never
had wide vogue in American grammatical textbooks; none of the
important grammars which followed Murray seems to have used it.
None of the Murray texts, nor Bingham's, nor Brown's, make use of
it. About the only signs of advance made by American grammarians
before 1800 are, first, the discarding of the question and answer, and,
second, the simplification of the elaborate texts into the form of
Bingham's Young Ladies' Accidence, Alexander's Grammar, and
Webster's Rudiments.

SIMPLIFYING TERMS.

Quite in line with the devices enumerated above is the contention,
constantly repeated by the various text-writers, that they are simpli-
fying terms for the ease of the pupils.. Brightland and his follower,
Fisher, have, indeed, some right to make this contention. They dis-
carded the four Latin main divisions — orthography, etymology, syn-
tax, and prosody — and substituted letters, words, and sentences
instead. Moreover, they call nouns, names; pronouns, pronames;
adjectives, qualities ; verbs, actions. They attempt to give definitions
and explanations simply. Brightland waxes quite indignant. He
claims " glorious improvements," complains against Greenwood and
others for not following him in his previous edition.60 " Little Prog-
ress they made in a Discovery that had so fairly been laid before them
by Dr. Wallis and Ourselves : For Custom has so strong a Force on
the Mind, that it passes with the bulk of Mankind for Reason and
Sacred Truth." 61 Murray insists that he phrases his rules exactly
and comprehensively; also that they may readily be committed to
memory and easily retained.62 For this purpose he has selected terms

"Ibid., 90.

68 Brinsley, op. cit., 87.

69 Priestley, preface, VI.

60 Brightland's first edition was 1706, Greenwood's 1711.

61 Brightland, preface, I.
68 Murray, preface, 4.

ENGLISH GRAMMAH TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 1 19

that are " smooth and voluble ; has proportioned the members of one
sentence to another; has avoided protracted periods and given
harmony to the expression of the whole." 63

Priestley's argument for simplicity is convincing :

I have also been so far from departing from the simplicity of the plan of that
short grammar (his first edition) that I have made it in some respects, still
more simple; and I think, on that account, more suitable to the genius of the
English language. I own I am surprised to see so much of the distribution, and
technical terms of the Latin grammar, retained in the grammar of our tongue;
where they are exceedingly awkward, and absolutely superfluous; being such
as could not possibly have entered into the head of any man, who had not been
previously acquainted with Latin. Indeed this absurdity has, in some measure,
gone out of fashion with us; but still so much of it is retained, in all the
grammars I have seen, as greatly injures the uniformity of the whole; and the
very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they
have done, should have induced them to have gone farther. A little reflection
may, I think, suffice to convince any person, that we have no more business with
a future tense in our language, than we have for the whole system of Latin
moods and tenses; because we have no modification of our verbs to correspond
to it ; and if we had never heard of a future tense in some other language, we
should no more have given a particular name to the combination of the verb
with the auxiliary shall or will, than to those that are made with the auxiliaries
do, have, can, must, or any other.

It seems wrong to confound the account of inflections either with the gram-
matical uses of the combinations of words, of the order in which they are
placed, or of the words which express relations and which are equivalent to
inflections in other languages. I can not help flattering myself that future
grammarians will owe me some obligations for introducing this uniform
simplicity, so well suited to the genius of our languages, into the English
grammar.

Priestly bases his revolt against the Latin grammar upon another
argument, which was decidedly new in his day, contending that the
" only just standard of any language " is the custom and modes of
speaking it. He revolts against leaning too much on analogies in
language. He says:

I think it is evident that all other grammarians have leaned too much to the
analogies of that language (Latin) contrary to our modes of speaking. ... It
must be allowed that the custom of speaking is the original and only just stand-
ard of any language. We see, in all grammars, that this is sufficient to estab-
lish a rule, even contrary to the strongest analogies of the language with itself.
Must not custom, therefore, be allowed to have some weight in favor of those
forms of speech to which our best writers and speakers seem evidently prone? **

EXAMPLE AND ILLUSTRATION.

One final method, frequently urged by good teachers, was the
setting of a good example and the careful explanation by the teacher
of doubtful points. Colet urges that masters must set a good

" Ibid.

«* Priestley, preface, VII-IX.

120 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

example.65 Brinsley has the master read and explain difficult parts
of the lesson ; 66 has the pupils read parts after the master has read ; 67
shows how the lecture method arose by lack of books ; 68 and has them
parse in imitation of the master.69 Greenwood gives as the reason
why youth have found grammar " irksome, obscure, and difficult,"
" partly through the Want of having every Thing explained and
cleared up to their Understanding as they go along." 70 The author of
the British Grammar explains what was doubtless the practice of the
better masters about 1750 ; he indicates a distinct advance in method.
In this respect the author is shown as an innovator.

The Method I take, and I find it so far effectual to the End proposed, is, having
got what I judged to be the best Book of Letters, I make several young Gentle-
men stand up and read a Letter gracefully; after which I read it to them
myself, making observations on the Sentiment and the Style, and asking their
Opinions with Respect to both.n

This admirable practice was found only in the better schoolrooms.
We shall see the movement for " oral explanation " as a part of the
educational revival led by Horace Mann.72

4. PARSING.

We come now to the other two of the great triumvirate of methods
carried over from the Latin to the English grammar — parsing and
false syntax. Brinsley complains that " there is so much time spent
in examining everything " (parsing) ; nevertheless, he insists that his
pupils parse as they construe.

Ask the child what word he must begin to parse (Principal word).78 ... In the
several forms and Authors to construe truly, and in propriety of words and
sense, to parse of themselves and to give a right reason of every word why it
must be so, and not otherwise. . . . Parse over every word; teach what part
of speech, how to decline it. give a true reason for every word, why it must
be so.M

Brinsley's elaborate method of procedure is as follows : The scholar
is to read the sentence before he construes; mark all the points
(punctuation) in it; mark words beginning with great letters; under-
stand the matter ; mark the vocative case ; seek out the principal verb ;
give every clause his right verb; supply wanting words; give every
word his " proper signification "; join the substantive and adjective;
mark if the sentence have an interrogation point.75

65 Lily, op. cit., 2. 70 Greenwood, preface, II.

60 Brinsley, op. cit., 74. 71 British, preface, XXVIII.

87 Ibid., 99. " See Chap. VI, p. 146.

68 Ibid., 53. « Brinsley, op. cit, 127.

69 Ibid., 41. "Ibid., 125.

76 Ibid., 95. This is a careful examination of the nature of the sentence which does not
come into the practice of American schools until well down into the nineteenth century.
Green's Analysis of 1848 did much to throw the emphasis previously given to dry
formalism in grammar to the analysis of sentences. See Chap. VII.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 121

An example of " praxis " or " grammatical resolution," the system
of torture called parsing, which lasted well toward the end of the
nineteenth century, may be taken from Lindley Murray's books:

The sentence :

And he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins. The Resolution : And, a Conjunction
Copulative: he, a Pronoun, third Person Singular, Masculine Gender, Nomina-
tive Case, standing for John: came, as before: into, a Preposition: all, an
Adjective: the Country, a Substantive: about, a Preposition; Jordan, a Proper
Name ; preaching, the Present Participle of the verb Active to preach joined
like an adjective to the Pronoun he : the baptism, a Substantive in the Objective
Case following the Active verb Preaching, and governed by it, etc.78

It requires but a glance at the contents of the grammars which
began instruction of the subject in America to see how this formalism
of parsing reigned supreme. The British Grammar believes in pars-
ing every word ; 77 Murray advertises a new system of parsing.78
Goolcl Brown was perhaps the most ardent champion of parsing in
America. He explains the philosophy of the exercise in this :

[It is] neither wholly extemporaneous, nor wholly by rote; it has more dignity
than a school boy's conversation, and more ease than a formal recitation. The
exercise in parsing commences immediately after the first lesson of etymology,
and is carried on progressively until it embraces all the doctrines that are
applicable to it. . . . It requires just enough of thought to keep the mind
attentive to what tbe lips are uttering; while it advances by such easy gradua-
tions and constant repetitions as to leave the pupil utterly without excuse, if he
does not know what to say.79

Brown further insists that in the entire range of school exercises,
while there is none of greater importance than parsing, yet, perhaps,
there is none which is, in general, more defectively conducted.
Brown's grammars are the culmination of the series of parsing gram-
mars; in the last chapter we have seen them in use quite extensively
in the academies of New York as late as 1870.80 Brown champions
parsing on one ground which has an entirely modern ring. He wishes
to have the child given something to do as well as something to learn.81

Elaborate formulas of procedure reduce all to a system, so that by
rote correcting and parsing the whole process may be made easy.
This makes the exercise free from all embarrassment, which is con-
ducive to proficiency in language. Says this master of parsing :

The pupil who can not perform these exercises both accurately and fluently
. . . has no right to expect from anybody a patient hearing. A slow and falter-
ing rehearsal ... is as foreign from parsing or correcting as it is from elegance
of diction. Divide and conquer is the rule here, as in many cases. Begin with
what is simple; practice it until it becomes familiar and then proceed. No
cbild ever learned to speak by any other process. Hard things become easy by
use, and skill is gained little by little.82

»• Murray, 47. 80 See Chap. IV.

" British, preface, VI. 81 Brown, preface, V.

« Murray, preface, 6. M Brown, Gram of Gram., preface, V.

T9 Brown, preface, VI.

122 ENGLISH GEAMMAE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

This in a nutshell is the philosophy of grammar from Lily down to
almost 1900. Grammar is the art of speaking and writing the English
language ; the child learns to speak by getting first the elements. A
constant process of dividing wholes into parts, even to the letters as a
starting point, is the natural and logical method for teachers who will
start their pupils rightly. As written and spoken language is accom-
plished by the putting together of parts, so the taking of them apart
is the initial step of the learning process. Parsing and correcting
involve this extremely analytical philosophy. Therefore they are
the best methods of learning. Moreover, parsing is looked upon as a —

critical exercise in the utterance as well as of evidence of previous study. . . .
It is an exercise for all the powers of the mind, except the inventive faculty.
Perception, judgment, reasoning, memory, and method are indispensable. . . .
Nothing is to be guessed at, or devised, or uttered at random.83

Here we have the second step in the logical process of the parsing
enthusiasts. The first rests on the natural analytical process as the
basis of learning the parts of complicated wholes. The second is the
logical result of the old faculty psychology. The powers of the mind,
in order to be trained in the extremest sense of formal discipline, are
exercised by the analytical procedure of tearing wholes into parts.
This applies to all of the powers of the mind except invention, which
is supposed to be a constructive, not an analytical, process. The
reduction of parsing to strict models makes certain the elimination of
invention on the part of the pupil. There is little doubt that the
statement of Goold Brown, cited above, is the essence of the peda-
gogical thinking which regarded grammar as " the disciplinary study
par excellence." It is a result in large part of the reign of faculty
psychology and formal discipline.

5. FALSE SYNTAX.

The practices of the Latin and the rote periods added another bane
to schoolboy life, namely, the correction of false syntax. This
appears to have been generally introduced about the middle of the
eighteenth century, the first to use it being Fisher and the author of
the British Grammar. These writers are followed by all the others
in our series, each seeming to be more convinced of the pedagogical
value of the exercise than any of his predecessors. The author of the
British Grammar asserts that his book is " differently planned," 84
because it offers " promiscuous exercises in false syntax, both in verse
and in prose." 85 He also urges the master to deceive his pupils by
reading wrongly.86 Fisher also urges the master to " read falsely," 8T

« Ibid. 86 Ibid., XV.

•* British, preface, I. 87 Fisher, preface, XII.

wibid., III.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 123

to keep the pupils alert, and defends himself for putting his exercises
in false syntax in a separate part of his book instead of scattering
them " promiscuously " throughout the text.88

Lowth believes in teaching " what is right, by showing what is
wrong." He thinks there is no English grammar which sufficiently
performs this duty, though it may prove " the more useful and effec-
tual method of instruction." 89 Two examples of Lowth's false syntax
follow :

Rule : The article, a, can only be joined to Substantives in the Singular
number. A good character should not be rested in as an end, but employed as a
means of doing still further good. (Atterbury's Sermons.) Ought it not be a
mean? I have read an author of this taste, that compares a ragged coin to a
tattered colours. (Addison on Medals.) ^

The foregoing amusing example of extreme emphasis put upon a
perfectly trivial point is especially ludicrous, because Lowth is wrong.
Both the sentences from Atterbury and Addison are correct; in the
first, means is a singular noun ; in the second " colours," meaning flag,
is also singular.

The other example has to do with choose, chose, chosen :

Thus having chosed each other. . . . (Clarendon. Hist., Vol. Ill, p. 797, 8vo.)
Improperly.91

Lowth complains that in 200 years English had made " no advances
in grammatical accuracy." He quotes Swift " On the imperfect State
of our Language " — that " in many cases it offended against every
part of Grammar." He asserts that in his day " Grammar is very
much neglected," and fills the bottom of nearly every page with foot-
notes of what he terms proof a that our best authors have committed
gross mistakes for want of due knowledge of English Grammar."
Lowth assures us that these examples " are such as occurred in read-
ing, without any very curious or methodical examination." It is a
curious speculation, then, as to why Lowth advocates so vigorously
the teaching " of what is right by showing what is wrong." It may
be that he was eager to make use of the copious notes which he had
doubtless been accumulating in years of reading.92 He is impartial in
his selection of false grammar, citing Hobbs, the Bible, the Liturgy,
Pope, Shakespeare, Prior, Hooker, Dryden, and Addison.93

88 Ibid., x.

89 Lowth, preface, X.

90 Lowth, op. cit., 19.

91 Ibid.

93 Ibid., preface, I-X.

98 " You was ... is an enormous Solecism ; and yet authors of the front rank have
inadvertently fallen into it. ' Knowing that you was my old master's friend.' Addison,
Spectator, No. 517. ' Would to God you was within her reach;' Lord Bolingbroke to
Swift, letter 46, etc." In these footnotes Lowth's practice is somewhat of a deviation
from correcting false syntax. Op. cit., 35.

124 ENGLISH GRAMMAE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Priestley approves of Lowth's methods, as follows :
An appendix would have been made of examples of bad English; for they are
really useful; but they make so uncouth an appearance in print. And it can
be no manner of trouble to any teacher to supply the worst of them, by a false
reading of a good author, and requiring his pupils to point out, and rectify his
mistakes. . . .M I think tbere will be an advantage in my having collected
examples from modern writings, rather than those from Swift, Addison, and
others, who wrote about half a century ago, in what is called the classical
period of our tongue. By this means we see what is the real character and turn
of the language at present ; and by comparing it with the writings of preceding
authors, we may better perceive which way it is tending, and what extreme we
should most carefully guard against.91

William Ward also commends Lowth's method :

Very lately we have been favored with one (grammar) by the learned Dr.
Lowth. . . . This Piece is excellent on account of his notes, in which are shewn
the grammatic inaccuracies that have escaped the pens of our most distinguished
Writers. This way of distinction, by showing what is wrong in English in order
to teach us to avoid it, is necessary, because the pupils will themselves offend
against every rule: there will be plenty of opportunity to shew them what is
wrong.96

Again, we have the testimony of that high priest of parsing and
false syntax, Goold Brown : " Scarcely less useful ... is the prac-
tice of correcting false syntax orally, by regular and logical form of
argument." 97 Murray also believes in the practice, as will be seen
from the following quotation :

From the sentiment generally admitted, that a proper selection of faulty
composition is more instructive to the young grammarian, than any rules or
examples of propriety that can be given, the compiler has been induced to pay
particular attention to this part of the subject; and though the instances of
false grammar, under the rules of Syntax are numerous, it is hoped they will
not be found too many, when their variety and usefulness are considered.98

The above examples are to be corrected orally.

Fisher thinks that he is the first to introduce English exercises in
false syntax. He says that the practice was considered expedient in
Latin and mentions two Latin texts of his day which have the device.
He says : " I never observed this method recommended or prescribed
by others."99 It will be remembered that Fisher antedates Lowth,
the British Grammar, and Priestley. The British Grammar improves
on Fisher, the author of that book thinks, by scattering false syntax
throughout the text and putting the errors in italics, not " to distract
the learner too much." x

6. SUBORDINATE METHODS.

There can be no doubt that the grammars which determined the
earliest instruction in the subject in America put a premium upon the

"Priestley, preface, XXII. 98 Murray, preface 3.

••Ibid., XI. "Ward, op. cit, preface. IX.

w Brown, preface, 4. • Fisher, preface, XXI. * British, preface, IV.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 125

three major methods of teaching we have just been considering, viz:
Memorization of rules, parsing, and correcting false syntax. All
three, except possibly the last, are direct inheritances from the class-
rooms of Latin grammar, and if we can believe Fisher, as cited above,
the latter was inherited also. We have now to consider certain minor
methods. It must be borne in mind that grammar included in 1800
far more than it does to-day. It was instruction in the use of the
mother tongue, embracing many of the purposes served to-day by
composition, rhetoric, writing, reading, euphonies, declamation, and
the rest.

There is constant evidence as to the use of these additional func-
tions of grammatical instruction. We may cite, for example, emphasis
upon the parallel study of reading from authors in the mother tongue.
This was to be the means of becoming familiar with good writers for
the sake of observing good grammatical construction, as well as of
getting lessons in morality, honesty, and goodness. Many of the
grammars have appendices with fables, prayers, catechisms, and the
like, which were prescribed as a regular part of the study called gram-
mar. It is by no means improbable that in these parallel readings
we have the origin of school practices which have to-day eventuated
in the study of the English classics. Franklin, however, seems to
have had in mind a larger purpose in his proposals, approaching in
1750 somewhat nearer our modern conception; that is, the English
classics for their content as well as for literary excellence.2

Colet recommends the use of " prettie bookes " with " lessons of
godlinesse and honestie." In the edition of 1627 he enjoins teachers
to " be to them your own selves also speaking with them the pure
Latin very present, and leave the rules." 3

Dilworth feels that this reading will help make palatable what he
calls " the pills of memorization." 4 The author of the British Gram-
mar gives his pupils a taste of the poets ; 5 Fisher has the master or
one of the scholars read to pupils from the best authors.6 Ward uses
the Spectator as a suitable classic and selects from easy books
" examples for resolving," 7 while Priestley collects examples from

2 See Chap. ITT, p. 44.

8 " For reading of good books, diligent information of taught masters, studious advert-
ence and taking heed of learners, hearing eloquent men speak, and finally busy imitation
with tongue and pen, more availeth shortly to get the true eloquent speech, than all the
traditions, rules and precepts of masters." Lily, op. cit., 3.

4 "As Practice, in all Arts and Sciences, is the great Medium of Instruction between
Master and Scholar. I would advise all Teachers, when they find their Learners relish the
Rules of this Part (grammar) to enjoin them at the same time to read the best English
Authors, as the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, etc. . . . and banish from their eyes such
Grubstreet Papers, idle Pamphlets, lewd Plays, filthy Songs, and unseemly Jests which
. . . debauch the Principles." Dilworth, preface, VIII-IX.

"British, preface. XXII.

6 Fisher, preface, X.

1 Ward, preface, X.

126 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

the best authors and indicates that he, too, believes in the device.
Later authors seem largely to have given up recommending the prac-
tice, perhaps because formal grammar is to an extent becoming more
confined in its scope.

Four other methods, or classroom devices, appear quite frequently :
Emulation, preferments, copying, and dictation.

Brinsley is the champion of the first of these. He desires all to
have their adversaries and to be so matched and placed that all may
" be done by strift." 9 SeAvell has his pupils certify inaccuracies in
each other's expressions, constantly correcting each other.10 Brown
passes the errors of one pupil on to the next.11 Here we seem to find
indication of the practice " going to the head of the line," so often
described by our fathers. Fisher was an especially ardent advocate
of emulation.12

Similar in purpose, if not quite identical in practice, is the elaborate
system of preferments described by Brinsley. This has continued in
all teaching up to the present day. Brinsley describes his plans for
encouragement in this wise: Promotions to higher classes; giving
higher places to those who do better; commending everything well
done; giving rewards to victors in disputation and applause to the
victors; and comparing exercises in writing books.13 Copying might
have been listed as a device for aiding memory. However, it seems
to have been considered a means of stimulating interest, a sad com-
mentary indeed upon the dry-as-dust processes which it could be
thought to relieve. Typical advice is found in Fisher,14 in Dilworth,15
and in the British Grammar,16 urging masters to have pupils copy
exercises in both prose and verse for their " evening copy."

Dictation is closely akin to copying and is even more frequent in
the recommendations of the grammarians. Brinsley strongly recom-

8 Priestley, preface, XXIII.

9 Brinsley, op. cit.. 50.
10Sewell, preface, VII, VIII.

11 " When a boy notes an impropriety in his schoolmate's Expression, he writes down the
Expression just as it was uttered ; then he adduces the Rule of Grammar from which the
Expression deviates, and underneath he inserts the Expression corrected. For this Feat,
he receives a Clap of Applause and takes his Place Superior to the Boy whose Expression
he corrected."

The teacher should " carefully superintend . . rehearsals : give the word to the next,
when any one errs, and order the exercise in such a manner that either his own voice, or
the example of the best scholars, may gradually correct the ill habits of the awkward, till
all learn to recite with clearness, understanding well what they say, and make it
intelligible to others."

12 "After they are masters of letters, syllables, and words they will be able to remember
Rules. . . . After reading they are to learn the stops and marks. . . . Employ time in
writing Words down, whilst the Master, or one of the Scholars, reads a Paragraph from
the Spectator . . and let all that are appointed to write, copy from his Reading, then
to create an Emulation, compare the Pieces and place the Scholars according to the Defect
of their Performances." Preface, IX-X.

13 Brinsley, op. cit., 280 et seq.
u Fisher, preface, X.

16 Dilworth, preface, IX.
"British, preface, IV.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 127

mended the practice.17 Fisher also 18 would have pupils keep alpha-
betical lists in pocketbooks, the use of which he constantly urges. The
British Grammar is likewise in favor of the device.19 Sewell has
pupils take dictation on their slates and then the teacher corrects it.20
Dilworth also recommends the exercise.21

There remains to be noted the use of copy books, writing exercises,
and oral work. Brinsley recommends " note books of daily use with
inke," and requires each pupil to possess " a little paper booke to
note all new and hard words in." 22 Fisher gives extended directions
for the use of copy books.23

The British Grammar, elaborating the discussion of dictation, gives
it the nature of a writing exercise. When a master dictates he may
mix the rules, making the exercise as promiscuous as he chooses. Let
a tyro " first copy the several Exercises, and then write them a second
time from Dictation," then correct it and copy it again. The author
advances this as a reason for making his book so short. He also com-
mends the writing of an anonymous letter with the purpose that
" One Exercise should be daily to write a Page of English, and after
that to examine every word by the Grammar Rules ; and in every Sen-
tence they have composed, to oblige them to give an Account of the
English Syntax and Construction." 24

Sewell requires pupils to write on their slates, and has in the appen-
dix a chapter for practice in letter writing.25 Ward has the study of
grammar accompanied by the composition of short letters.26 Brown
gives four chapters of exercises adapted to the four parts of the sub-
ject, which are to be written out by the learner. " The greatest
peculiarity of the method is that it requires the pupil to speak or
write a great deal, and the teacher very little." 27

Fisher's book and the British Grammar are particularly emphatic
in recommending oral work, the former making pupils pronounce

"Brinsley. op. cit.. 46 and 124.
18 Fisher, preface, Vi.
"British, preface, XIII.
20 Sewell. preface, VII.
n Dilworth. preface. VI.

22 Brinsley. op. cit. 46 and 124.

23 " Let the Master write down all their mis-spelt words right in their Writing-Books,
to be got by Heart before they leave them and withal, make each Scholar write his own
into an Alphabetical Pocket-book kept for that Purpose." He also recommends that the
master write misspelled words into the pupils' writing books. Perhaps we have in these
books the germ of composition work which first came about 1750. Fisher, preface, XI.

M British, IV, VI, XIX

25 << ]vjow an(j tnen as a o>neral Exercise, I make my pupils write down on their Slates
a select sentence, as I dictate to them ; each one keeps his Performance close to himself.
On Examination those whose Performances appear correct, are ranked in a Superior
Place, and to prove that they have written correctly, by Dint of Judgment, and not as
the Effect of Chance, I make them rectify the Error of Inferior Boys, by quoting the
Rule of Grammar, from which each Error is a Deviation." Sewell, preface, VII. The
appendix for letter writing is on page 163 of Sewell's Grammar.

M Ward, preface, X.

87 Brown, preface, VI.

128 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

orally in prosody,28 the latter requiring them to speak every clay thei;
unwritten thoughts.29

7. METHODS USED BY HUGHES AND BYERLEY.

So far the endeavor has been to show how the methods of teaching
grammar in the Latin and rote periods were, with but slight varia-
tion, the methods used in instruction in Latin grammar. This chap-
ter may fittingly close with a description of methods used in two
prominent English grammar schools in New York in 1769 and 1773,
respectively. Fortunately, Hugh Hughes and Thomas Byerley have
left careful explanation of their methods. The description of these
masters is also strong evidence that English grammar was coming to
occupy in a few American schools a position very closely resembling
that held by Latin grammar in classical schools, indeed, that identical
methods were employed in the teaching of both.

HUGHES.

In 1771 Hughes modified his program, at least he so claims, to lay
greater stress upon English. His advertisement of that year reads:
" Orthoepy, or Just Pronunciation, which the Pupil is taught, not
by Precept alone; but by Occular Example . . . with proper Stops,
Emphasis, Cadence, Quantity, and a Delivery, varied and governed
by sense." 32

In 1771 Hughes had changed his program into that of a thorough-
going English grammar school. On December 30 he announces:
" The Subscriber proposes, if encouraged, to teach the English Lan-
guage Grammatically." It is to be noted here that the method pro-
posed is probably unfamiliar, or at least not common, in New York
and that " if encouraged " indicates the dependence of private-school
men upon the desires of patrons, of which concerning his new proposal
he is somewhat in doubt. Hughes thus describes his methods :

When the pupil can read fluently and write a Legible Hand he shall be taught
the English Accidence,88 or the Properties of the Parts of Speech, as divided and
explained by the latest and most eminent English Grammarians; that is Dr.
Lowth, Dr. Priestley, and others.

After which he will be taught to parse disjunctively, then modally, and
instructed in the Rules of English Syntax : and, when he is sufficiently skilled
in them, to account for the Construction of Sentences in General, he will receive
Lessons of False Spelling and Irregular Concord, etc., taken from some classic
Authors, but rendered ungrammatical for the Purpose of trying his Judgment.
When he has reduced these as near the Original as his Knowledge of Grammar
will permit, he will be shown all such irregularities as may have escaped his
Notice, either in the Orthographical or Syntactical Part.

28 Fisher, preface, XI.
» British, preface, XXVIII.
32 N. Y. G. and W. P. B., Dec. 30, 1771.

83 It is to be noted that the study of English grammar begins exactly where that of
Latin grammar began.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 129

These Lessons will also be selected from different Authors in various Sub-
jects; and 'frequently, from the Works of those who are the most Celebrated,
for the Elegance of their Epistolary Writings; as this Kind of Composition is
acknowledged to be as difficult as any, and of greater Utility. The erroneous
Part in every Lesson will likewise be modified. At one time it will consist of
false Spelling alone; . . . at another of false Concord ; . . . the next perhaps will
consist of both ; . . . the fourth may not be composed of either of them, but may
contain some Inaccuracies or Vulgarisms, etc.; the fifth may retain all the
foregoing Inproprieties, and the last, none of them, of which the pupil need not
be appraised, for Reasons, that are too evident to require a Recital. To the
preceeding exercises will succeed others on the Nature and Use of Transposi-
tion ; . . . the Elipses of all the Parts of Speech, as used by the best Writers,
together with the use of Synonymous Terms. . . .

A General Knowledge of all which, joined to Practice, will enable Youth
to avoid the many orthographical Errors, Barbarisms, inelegant Repetitions,
and manifest Solecisms, which they are otherwise liable to run into, and in
Time, which render them Masters of an easy, Elegant Style, by which they will
become capable of conveying their Sentiment's with Clearness and Precision, in
a concise and agreeable Manner, as well with Reputation to themselves as
Delight to their Friends.

Lastly, tho' the Pointing of a Discourse requires Judgment and a more inti-
mate Acquaintance with the Syntactical Order of Words and Sentences, than
the Generality of Youth can be possessed of, to which may be added the unset-
tled State that Punctuation itself is really in ; so that very few precise Rules
can be given, without numerous Exceptions, which would rather embarass the
Pupils by continually searching of their Dictionaries, in quest of Primitives
and their Derivatives, as well as the constituent Parts of Compound Terms;
besides learning the Dependence that their Native Language has on itself; will
also treasure up in their Memories a vast Stock of Words, from the purest
Writers: and what is of infinitely more Value, their just Definitions; as every
one of this Class will have Johnson's Dictionary in Octavo.84

BYERLEY.

Byerley is the author of the second grammar written by an Ameri-
can and published in this country, "A Plain and Easy Introduction to
English Grammar," 1773. In the same year we find him advertising
an English grammar school in New York City, giving a detailed
record of the methods of teaching used in his various classes.

Byerley, like Franklin and other American champions of the
mother tongue, had been reading John Locke.35 In the advertisement
of his school, he sets forth the necessity of giving up the study of
Latin for the purpose of learning English grammar, quoting Locke

■* Advertisement In N. Y. G. and W. P. B., Dec. 30, 1771.

85 Byerley, after quoting Locke and Lowth, continues : " Heretofore it was thought a
competent knowledge of the English could not be acquired without some previous acquaint-
ance with the Latin Tongue : which therefore became the only Vehicle of grammatical
Instruction. This error arose from a too partial Fondness for that Language, in which
formerly tha Service of the Church, the Translation of the Bible, and most other Books
were printed. . . . Men, however, too often sacrifice their Understanding? at the shrine
of Ancient Custom. Thus the Practice of sending Youths to learn English at a Latin

60258°— 22 9

130 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

at length on the unwisdom of compelling a lad to learn " the Romar
Language " when he is at the same time designed for a " trade.'' 3<
There can be little doubt that the seeming practicability of English
grammar and of the so-called English education in general — a conten
tion first advanced by Locke — was the most powerful argument for the
vernacular.

After thus setting forth his reasons Byerley sketches his plan fo
"An English Grammar School which will be opened the first of nex
month." 37 This title, like Hughes's, which was called "An English
Grammar and General School, indicates that there were attempts to
establish English schools on the same order as the secondary grammar
schools heretofore known in the colonies.

In the lowest Class will be arranged the Children who have been but imper-
fectly taught to read ; with whom the Utmost Care shall be taken to correct ill
Habits in Reading; and to form a just Pronunciation.

In the next Class the Scholar shall be initiated in the grammatical Institutes;
and these strongly fixed on the Mind by frequent Parsing of the most approved
Lessons.

The third will introduce the scholar to an Acquaintance with the Syntax and
Ellipsis; each of which shall be inculcated in a Course of reading such books
as may engage the young Attention, and have a moral Tendency; as ^Esop's
Fables, The Moral Miscellaney, The British Plutarch, Gay's Fables, Beauties of
History, or Pictures of Virtue and Vice.

In this Class the Scholar will be frequently exercised in the Declension of
irregular and defective Verbs, and the Exercises of Parsing will be continued.

The fourth Class will be formed out of those Scholars who being most pro-
ficient in their grammatical Exercises are ready to be instructed in a proper and
elegant Mathod of reading Prose.

The books used in this Course, will be chiefly History of the World, History of
English, Introduction to Polite Learning, Seneca's Morals, Ancient History,
History of America, Derbam's Physics, and Astro-Theology, Economy of Human
Life.

In the fifth Class the scholar will be initiated in the Proprieties and Beauties
of reading Poetry, exemplified in the Works of Thomson, Gray, Pope, and
Milton.

The Scholars of the fourth and fifth Classes will be occasionally instructed in
the Art of familiar Letter writing.

SUMMARY OF METHODS IN THE LATIN AND ROTE PERIODS.

What then may be concluded concerning the methods of the years
1750 to 1823 in America?

School continued, without any inquiries about the Propriety of it, till Mr. Locke ventured
to censure the conduct of a Father who should waste his own Money and his Son's Time
in Setting him to learn the Roman Language." ...

Byerley was a disciple of Locke in matters of discipline also. At the end of his adver-
tisement he gives " Rules," " on the Model of Mr. Locke, a New Mode of Reprehension
for Irregularities and a loitering Study, will be adopted. The several Methods at present
taken in most Schools . . . are oftener attended with bad than with good Consequences.
It shall be my care to reason or shame them out of their Faults by affectionate Argu-
ments with them ; or in the Extremity, a public Disgrace among their Fellows."

36 The title Hughes's English Grammar and General School appears in 1773 announce-
ment. N. Y. G. and W. M , Nov. 8.

37 Byerley advertisement in N. Y. G. and W. M., Aug. 23, 1773.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 131

1. The textbooks in most general use were modeled strictly after the
Latin, and their authors advised methods of instruction which had
been used in teaching Latin grammar for 300 years.

2. The common conception of grammar — as the art of writing and
speaking a language with correctness and propriety — was one which
confused the nature of grammar with the laudable purpose of teach-
ing it and obtained, with few exceptions, throughout the two periods.

3. Instruction proceeded without exception from the wrong unit —
the word. This was the natural result of the seemingly logical process
of beginning with the simplest elements and proceeding to the com-
plex. In reading and in grammar, because of this procedure, the
A-B-C method was destined to remain fixed until the revival led by
Horace Mann. All the grammars began with the parts of speech.

4. There was but little connection between the parrotlike repetition
of rules and any real understanding of them.38

5. Eelatively little effort in writing or speaking was made to apply
the rules of grammar. William B. Fowle, the editor of The Common
School Journal, writing of his own education about 1800, said :

We were educated at one of the best schools . . . but, although we studied
English grammar seven years and received a silver medal for proficiency, we
never wrote a sentence of English at school, and never did anything that had to
do with writing or conversation.89

The common procedure was in theory from rules to practice; but
it was practice involved in the application of formidable exercises of
syntax, etymology, and parsing and endless exercises in correcting
false syntax. It is true that in dictation, writing exercises, and speak-
ing we have seen, in embryonic form, the beginnings of our modern
composition and literature; but these were strictly subordinated to
the all-powerful trilogy of methods — memorization, parsing, and
false syntax.

In short, from the viewpoint of the best modern practice, before
1823, English grammar was badly taught in every respect. The
nature of the textbooks themselves is enough to warrant that conclu-
sion ; but when the evidence is added of the wretched incompetence
of teachers 40 and the corroborating testimony of every man who was
a student of grammar during that period assurance is rendered
doubly sure. In almost the same terms Brinsley uses for his own
school in 1620 he might have described the practices of Hughes's and
Byerley's schools a century and a half later.

«• An observer, speaking of 1820, says : " Grammar has been extensively Introduced.
. . . Children are required to commit the grammar to memory. This was the study of
grammar. ... It may be said . . . that scarcely anyone understood anything he passed
over."

89 Editorial, C. S. J. (1849), 258. Fowle was the editor of two rather obscure grammars
in the period which turned the study toward the science of sentences and the practice of
writing.

40 See Chap. IV, pp. 92 et seq.

Chapter VI.
GRADUAL CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850.

In the preceding chapter we have seen the methods used in teaching
Latin grammar transferred with slavish imitation to English. In
brief, grammar was looked upon as the art of speaking and writing
correctly. This art was to be acquired by learning page after page of
rules by rote,41 of which no application whatever was made by the
pupils.42 Memorizing came to be supplemented by parsing according
to strict Latin methods 43 and by correcting endless examples of
false syntax.44 Moreover, the question-and-answer method, putting
a premium on verbatim recitation of memorized parts, prevalent
before 1800, had not entirely disappeared in 1830. 45 Grammar was
begun by very young children and was accompanied by no oral dis-
cussion and by no composition. Teachers were very deficient.46 The
result of these methods was little more than a mystification of the
pupils, with no appreciable improvement in grammatical accuracy.47
In short, the early instruction in grammar in America up to the end
of the first quarter of the nineteenth century proceeded on the wrong
basis — that of inflections; it began with the wrong unit — the word,
and it followed entirely erroneous methods of study in proceeding
from theory and rules to practice instead of reversing the process.48

41 J. T. Buckingham, Am. J. of Ed., 13, 132 ; Noah Webster, ibid., 26, 196 ; W. K. Oliver,
ibid., 213.

"Wallis, Com. Sch. J. (1850), 5.

48 As indicating the Latin extreme, Murray's Grammar makes possible 60 forms in the
pluperfect tense of the subjunctive mood.

44 This seems to have been introduced by Lowth's Grammar in 1758.

45 Wallis, op. cit., 85 ; Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 206 ; Am. An. of Ed. and Ins.
(1832), 268.

46 See Chap. IV, p. 92.

4TRept. Committee Common Schools, Conn., Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1832), 247.

Horace Mann said in 1827 : " It is not a perfect knowledge of a treatise on grammar
or a surprising fluency in parsing that will serve to produce . . . correctness in expres-
sion." Am. An. of Ed. (1827), 681-2.

48 W. C. Woodbridge, a prominent schoolman of Boston, says : " Nothing is more com-
mon than for children to recite it (the grammar), in course, two or three times. In
many of our schools, a portion of the day, through the greater part of one winter term
of three or four months, is devoted to committing to memory the rules and definitions of
etymology." He makes the following amusing calculation : " The average time spent in
committing grammar, as it is called, to memory, is at least one month to each pupil con
cerned ; and this time is entirely lost. New England contains 1,954,562 inhabitants
about one-fourth of whom are between 4 and 16 years of age. One scholar in ten . .
commences the study of grammar every year. The amount of time lost annually is equiva
lent to 4,072 years." Then, estimating the cost of schooling as $1.50 a week, he adds
" The value of the time would thus be $317,616. . . . Let this waste be continued every
year for 30 years, and the amount is nearly ten millions of dollars." Am. J. and An. of
Ed. and Ins. (1831), 170-1.

132

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 133

The ensuing period between 1823 and 1847, called above the parsing
period, was a time of conflict between the traditional ideals and
methods just mentioned and innovations fostered largely by the trend
toward inductive study which characterized some school practices of
that day. During this period four grammatical textbooks dominated
the field. In 1823 Samuel Kirkham published in New York his " New
and Systematic Order of Parsing " and in 1825 his " English Gram-
mar in Familiar Lectures." In the same year and State Goold Brown
published his " Grammatical Institutes." Peter Bullion's Grammar
of 1834 was the third. Roswell Smith's two books — his grammars on
the inductive and on the productive systems, respectively — had
appeared in 1829 and 1831. Smith was a Massachusetts author;
Bullion lived in New York. These four texts we have seen were fairly
successful in outdistancing all rivals by 1830, almost entirely displac-
ing Murray and Webster 49 with their imitators.

At the end of the period upon which we are entering William H.
Wells, with his " School Grammar," of 1846, and Samuel S. Greene,
with " The Analysis of Sentences," of 1847, appeared upon the scene.
These men produced the first of those texts which, after the middle
of the century, were to bring about still another revolution in prin-
ciples and school practice. They were the culmination of the influ-
ences which we shall see at work during the 25 years preceding them,
ushering in permanently the conception of grammar as a science of
sentences.50

The present chapter endeavors to trace the most important influ-
ences which produced the breaking away from the conception of
grammar as an art and prepared the way for the conception of it as a
science, a state finally attained by 1850. It will treat also the accom-
panying changes in methods of teaching before that date.51 The
second quarter of the last century was by far the most interesting
and important period in grammatical instruction, surpassed in inter-

Woodbridge is writing of the year 1830. In a Virginia elementary school of 1847 the
rule in grammar was: "Commit the big print the first time: on the socond review the
big and little print, verbatim. So I went through Smith's Grammar on the Productive
System. (What it produced in me Heaven only knows.) Almost all lesson-getting was by
heart." E. S. Joynes, quoted. Heathwole, Hist, of Ed. in Va., 111.

49 See Chap. IV, p. 86. Smith's Grammars were used more than all others combined in
Massachusetts during these decades. Bullion. Brown, Smith, and Kirkham divided the
grammatical field of New York about evenly among them.

60 Wells defines grammar as " the science which treats of the principles of grammar.
English grammar teaches [not is] the art of speaking and writing the English Language
correctly." Sch. Gram., 25. Greene says : " English grammar teaches the principles of
the English Language." Analysis, 203. By 1850 the conception of grammar as a science
was firmly fixed in school practice. Even Goold Brown, who in 1823 had defined " English
Grammar is the Art of Speaking and writing the English language correctly" (Institutes,
15), modified his definition to conform to the newer conception in 1851. Gram, of
Gram., 45.

31 The advance in methods after 1850, beginning with Wells and Greene, carried on
iater by Swinton, Swett, and others, is reserved for another study.

134 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

est only by the movement on foot at the present time, by which gram
mar is being relegated to its proper place as a purely incidental study

1. THE NATURE OF THE DOMINATING TEXTBOOKS, 1823-50.

Samuel Kirkham's two books, particularly his " Grammar on th(
Productive System," reached enormous popularity, especially in New
York and adjoining States.52 In several important respects Kirk-
ham's textbooks differ from Murray's, which they did so much to
displace. They made a decided advance in methods of teaching.
First, Kirkham illustrates in a series of familiar talks the various
rules and definitions in an endeavor to bring them within the com-
prehension of the learners ; 53 second, he introduces an imposing new
system of parsing.54 The chief innovation in his parsing, as differing
from Murray and Webster, is that Kirkham introduces it very early
in his study, immediately after his treatment of nouns and verbs,
while the older grammarians postpone the subject until the pupil had
mastered 160 pages (in Murray) of etymology and syntax.55 Kirk-
ham's third innovation is his use of a series of devices for recognizing
the various parts of speech and their functions in a sentence.56

These three innovations are designed to accomplish two purposes
which seem to have been largely unrecognized by the grammars of the
preceding periods, namely, the intelligent understanding by the pupil
of the parts he was learning and immediate self-activity on the pupil's
part in practicing the new principle just as soon as he has acquired it.
Remembering now that " stick close to the book " was the order of
the day, it is easy to infer what the influence of Kirkham's methods
must have been in school practice.

82 See Chap. IV, p. 84.

By 1835 the second book is said to have reached its one hundred and seventh edition in
New York. Barnard, Am J. of Ed., 14, 763.

The writer is using a book called " English Grammar by Lectures," Joseph Hull (first
edition, Boston, 1828), seventh edition. Mayfield, Ky., 1833. In a note the author says
that Kirkham stole his plan of procedure from him. Hull uses the same order of parsing
as Kirkham, namely, by transposition. He says : " This order and these rules have been
copied by some writers on English Grammar and presented as original. But a reference to
the date of the author's copyright ... in the forty-sixth year of the Independence of
the United States (1821) will prove it to be a plagiarism." Preface, XIV. We do not
pretend to pass on the merits of the claim. There is evident truth that either Hull copied
Kirkham, or vice versa ; the grammatical treatment of bath is on an entirely different plane
from that of earlier writers we have seen. However, although the case looks bad for
Kirkham, it was certainly he. not Hull, who was influential in spreading the new
movement.

53 For example : The nominative case is the actor, or subject of the verb : as. John
writes. In this example, which is the verb? You know it is the word icrites. because this
word signifies to do; that is, it expresses action; therefore according to the definition, it
is an active verb. And you know. too. that the noun John is the actor, therefore John is
in the nominative case to the verb writes. Eng. Gram, in Fam. Lect., 43.

54 " The Order Of Parsing a Relative Pronoun is — a pronoun, and why? — relative, and
why? — gender, and why? — Rule. — Case, and why? — Rule. — Decline it." Ibid., 113.

M It is only fair to say that editions of Murray's Abridgment after 1820 also place
parsing immediately after each exercise but in a much more rudimentary way.

68 Any word that will take the sense of " the " before it is a noun. Any word which
will make sense when preceded by " to " is a verb, etc. Ibid., 31, 44.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 135

Kirkham remarks concerning his innovations: "All (earlier writ-
ers) overlooked what the author considers a very important object,
namely, a systematick order of parsing: and nearly all have neglected
to develop and explain the principles in such a manner as to enable
the learner, without great difficulty, to comprehend their nature and
use." 57 He disclaims originality in subject matter, admitting frankly
that he copied Murray, but claims great credit for changes in presen-
tation and in method.58 We may conclude that Kirkham's main
attack was on purposeless rote memorization, aiming, as he did, to
make the pupils understand what they learned, and that while he
retained parsing and the correcting of false syntax he made definite
attempts to compel practice to accompany learning step by step.

Smith's Inductive and Productive Grammars, 1829 and 1831, were
produced frankly on the leading principles of Pestalozzi. This prin-
ciple Smith states as follows :

The child should be regarded not as the mere recipient of the ideas of others,
but as an agent capable of collecting, and originating, and producing most of
the ideas which are necessary for its education, when presented with the objects
of facts from which they may be derived. . . . Such is the productive system,
by which the powers of the pupil are called into complete exercise by requiring
him to attempt a task unaided, and then assisting him in his own errors. . . .
They distinguish carefully between knowledge and the means of perceiving
it.

The pretentious idea of the productive system, when worked out in
practice, is not at all impressive. Throughout the book the produc-
tive method amounts to putting in the text explanations which the
teacher might have made orally.00 The productive approach to rule

87 Ibid., 9.

88 " The systematick order laid down in this work, if pursued by the pupil, compels him
to apply every definition and every rule that appertains to every word he parses without
having a question put to him by the teacher. . . . The author is anxious to have the
absurd practice ... of causing learners to commit and recite definitions and rules with-
out any simultaneous application of them to practical examples immediately abolished."
Ibid., 11.

68 Preface, stereotype ed., Philadelphia, 1838, 5, 6.

Smith's Productive is really three grammars in one. Part I, covering 40 pages, con-
tains the parts of speech and treats 11 rules of syntax. Part II, intended for the next
higher class, covers (pp. 41-96) exactly the same 11 rules, going into much more detail,
with more elaborate parsing, and adding exercises in syntax, together with sentences to
be corrected. It adds more rules, completing 22 rules of syntax. Part III is entitled
" Syntax " and is really a rearrangement of Murray's large grammar. Murray's 22 rules
are given in order, with his treatment of each. Above each of Murray's rules Smith
places the number of his rule which corresponds, adding nine to the list. This part might
have been used by a pupil in his third year of grammar. The fact that it included three
grammars in one may have accounted for the popularity of the book in part ; under one
cover is material for three consecutive years of gi-ammatical study, the second and the
third each being an elaboration of the preceding.

60 I. Of the Noun.

Q. What is your name?

Q. What is the name of the town in whicb you live?

Q. What does the word noun mean?

Arts. The word noun means name.

Q. What then may your name be caHed?

136 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

9 — two negatives in the same sentence are equivalent to an affirm
tive — runs in this wise :

•

*

Negative means denying; and affirming, asserting or declaring positively. A
sentence in which something is denied is a negative one, and a sentence in
which something is affirmed ... is an affirmative one. . . . The phrase, " I
have nothing,'' has one negative, and means, " I have not anything." Th
phrase " I have not nothing "... must mean . . . " I have something."

Then follows the rule. Smith's idea is good, but when the objects
dealt with are words which are mere symbols of meanings, when the
objects dealt with are grammatical relationships and merely logical
concepts, the method for a textbook becomes extremely laborious. It
is formal, stiff, and heavy. However, his efforts at explanation and
self-activity on the part of the pupil were pioneer attempts in a diffi-
cult field. At the close of this period much of the laborious explana-
tion placed in the books of Kirkham and Smith is left to the teacher
in the form of " Oral Instruction." 61

In quite another direction lies the real merit of Smith's innovations.
He has one set of exercises running throughout his text, which con-
stitutes a decided step in advance. This is a series entitled " Sentences
to be written." For example, " Will you write one sentence discrib-
ing the business of an instructer? 62 One, the business of a doctor?
One, the business of a lawyer ? One of a surgeon. . . . One, of the
directors of a bank." 63 This pioneering in the field of sentence build-
ing renders him worthy of a place of high honor. Of course composi-
tion was not unknown, but the writer has seen no serious attempts
earlier than Smith to use it in close association with grammatical
instruction. This sentence building is one of the most promising
innovations in any textbook up to 1831.

Smith adds one other feature worthy of mention. At the foot of
each page he places a set of questions covering the principles developed
on the page. Presumably many a class recitation consisted in the
teacher's reading these questions and receiving corresponding answers
by the pupils. This in reality was a backward step. The very neces-
sity of framing a suitable question compels the teacher to think,
provided of course the recitation consists of anything more than
memorizing work. Smith scatters parsing and false syntax through-
out his books, as do all the important texts of the period with which
the writer is familiar. All follow Kirkham's example.

Bullion's Grammar of 1843 contains nothing new; his one effort
at advance in method seems to have been to make parsing shorter and

Arts. A noun.

Q. What may all names be called?

Ans. Nouns.

Q. Boston is the name of a place ; is Boston a noun, and if so, why?

Ans. Boston is a noun because it is a name. etc. Ibid.. 7.

61 See p. 146. « Ibid., 105.

88 His spelling is incorrect.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 137

simpler. His grammar parses the sentence " I lean upon the Lord,"
as follows : " I, the first personal pronoun, masculine or feminine,
singular, the nominative; lean, a verb, neuter, first person singular,
present, indicative ; upon, a preposition ; the, an article ; Lord, a noun,
masculine, singular, the objective, governed by upon." 64 In parsing,
the pupil is urged to state everything belonging to the etymology of
each word " in as few words as possible" always " in the same order "
and " in the same language"

Bullion's idea of simplifying any part of the process in grammar
was certain to arouse the bitter opposition of Goold Brown, who is at
once the most scholarly, the most interesting, and the most exasperat-
ing grammarian encountered in this study. He is exasperating
because of his sarcastic condemnation of the grammatical work of
every prominent writer with wThose books his own came in competi-
tion. Upon this simplifying plan of Bullion, Brown heaps the bit-
terest scorn, pointing out that Bullion omits (1) definitions of terms
applied; (2) distinction of nouns as common and proper; (3) the
person of nouns; (4) the words, number, gender, case; (5) the divi-
sion of adjectives into classes; (6) the classification of words as
regular and irregular, redundant or defective; (7) the division of
verbs as active, passive neuter; (8) the words, mode, and tense; (9)
the distinction of adverbs, as to time, place, degree, and manner; (10)
the distinctions of conjunctions as copulative or disjunctive; and (11)
the distinction of interjections as expressions of varying emotions.

The omission of these 11 points in parsing was highly irritating to
Brown, who still remained in 1851 65 a worshiper of formalism. To
Roswell C. Smith and Pestalozzianism in general Brown pays his
respects in no gentle terms. Of " The Grammar on the Productive
System " he affirms :

The book is as destitute of taste, as of method : of authority, as of originality.
It commences with the inductive process, and after forty pages . . . becomes a
" productive system," by means of a misnamed " Recapitulation " which jumbles
together the etymology and the syntax of the language through seventy-six
pages more. It is then made still more "productive" by the appropriation of
a like space to a reprint of Murray's Syntax and Exercises, under the inappro-
priate title, " general observations." What there is in Germany or Switzerland
that bears any resemblance to this misnamed system of English grammar,
remains to be seen. . . . The infidel Neef, whose new method of education has
been tried in this country, and with its promulgator forgot, was an accredited
disciple of this boasted " productive school," a zealous coadjutor with Pestalozzi
himself, from whose halls he emanated ... to teach the nature of things
sensible, and a contempt for all the wisdom of books. And what similarity is
there between his method of teaching and that of Roswell C. Smith, except their
pretense to a common parentage, and that both are worthless?68

•* Prin. of Eng. Gram., 74. " Gram, of Gram., 92-3.

66 The date of his Grammar of Grammars.

138 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Thus does Brown discredit Pestalozzianism, with its oral and objec-
tive teaching, and vigorously assail those who began to doubt u the
wisdom of books." Thus does he resent any effort to simplify or
render more expeditious the mastery of grammar, whose principles
he regarded with almost worshipful reverence. His own influence on
school practices was decidedly conservative ; he is the last of the old
guard, the champion of traditional methods, believing that a knowl-
edge of " the book itself will make anyone a grammarian." He
declares :

The only successful method of teaching grammar is to cause the principal
definitions and rules to be committed thoroughly to memory, that they may ever
afterward be readily applied. Oral instruction may smooth the way and
facilitate the labor of the learner; but the notion of communicating a competent
knowledge of grammar without imposing this task is disproved by universal
experience. ... It is the plain didactic method of definition and example, rule,
and praxis; which no man who means to teach grammar well will ever desert.
. . . The book itself will make anyone a grammarian who will take the trouble
to observe and practice what it teaches.67

Thus, in an almost ludicrous way the champion of what he calls the
u ancient positive method, which aims directly at the inculcation of
principles " 68 is blind to that fatal error of the traditionalists who
thought that the book itself would make anyone a grammarian. They
were right, if the assumption upon which the statement was made
were true. The error of the traditionalists lies in this assumption.
The connection between knowledge of the book, especially mere verbal
knowledge and skill in practice, is remote. That this connection was
not made in early American schools, was never made in any schools,
and is not generally made to-day is the supreme criticism of the
methods and practice of teaching grammar throughout its entire
course in America.

No better summary of the tide of protest that was swelling up
between 1825 and 1850 against this older conception can be desired
than the following statement of Brown himself, made at the close of
the period. His monumental " Grammar of Grammars," 1851, was
written frankly to stem innovations in teaching the subject. Examin-
ing the common argument that the memorizing of definitions and
rules, the knowledge of the arrangements' and divisions of a highly
Latinized grammar, has very little function in acquiring skill in the
art of language, Brown says :

It [this argument] has led some men ... to doubt the expediency of the
whole method, under any circumstances, and either to discountenance the whole
matter, or to invent other schemes by which they hoped to be more successful.
The utter futility of the old accidence has been inferred from it and urged . . .
with all the plausibility of a fair and legitimate deduction. The hardships of
children, compelled to learn what they did not understand, have been bewailed

« Institutes, preface, VI. •» Gram, of Gram., 86.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 139

in prefaces and reviews, and prejudices . . . have been excited against that
method of teaching grammar, which after aft, will be found . . . the easiest, the
shortest, and the best. I mean, especially, the ancient positive method, which
aims directly at the inculcation of principles.69

Of the four leading grammarians of the period, then, we may say
that Brown was distinctly a traditionalist. His contributions lay in
a more accurate presentation of the subject matter of grammar in
general. He was the last of the grammarians who would foist upon a
concordless tongue all the intricacies of inflected languages and insist
that a mere knowledge of abstract grammatical principles is effective
in making good writers and speakers. He looked upon grammar as
formal discipline par excellence. Bullion's contributions to new
methods were very meager. Kirkham and Smith, forerunners of
radical changes, attempted to employ principles of inductive teaching.

From almost the beginning of grammatical instruction in America
there had been sporadic attempts to make grammar easy for young
pupils. No fewer than 13 texts which were published before 1820
appear under the titles " Kudiments," " Grammar Made Easy," " Ele-
ments," " English Grammar Abridged," " Epitome of English Gram-
mar," and the like. But this endeavor to make grammar easy is to
be sharply distinguished from the attempts of grammarians whom
Brown refers to as simplifying grammarians — men who, after 1823,
endeavored to present by means of easily understood devices theoreti-
cal intricacies as found in Murray and Webster.

Even before the period under consideration Greenleaf, in 1819,
published " Grammar Simplified, or Oracular Analysis of the Eng-
lish Lnguage." Other titles indicative of this second line of endeavor
are: Anonymous, 1820, "The Decoy, An English Grammar";
McCrady, 1820, "An English Grammar in Verse " ; Ingersoll, 1821,
"Conversations in English Grammar"; Hurd, 1827, "Grammatical
Chart, or Private Instructor " ; Patterson, 182-, " Grammar without a
Master " ; anonymous, 1830, " Pestalozzian Grammar " ; anonymous,
1830, " English Grammar with Cuts " ; anonymous, 1832, " Interroga-
tive Grammar," and the like. In short, after 1820 there was manifest
a distinct tendency, both among leading grammarians and humbler
workers, to modify what had hitherto been an occult and laborious
subject, to the end that it might be understood as well as learned
verbatim.70

69 Ibid., 86.

70 Goold Brown speaks characteristically of this entire tendency. " The vain preten-
sions of several modern simplifyers, contrivers of machines, charts, tables, diagrams,
vincula, pictures, dialogues, familiar lectures, oracular analysis, productive systems, tabu-
lar compendiums, intellectual methods, and various new theories, for the purpose of
teaching grammar, may serve to deceive the ignorant, to amuse the visionary, and to
excite the admiration of the credulous . . . but no contrivance can ever relieve tlie pupil
from the necessity of committing them (rules and definitions) thoroughly to memory.
. . . The teacher . . . will be cautious of renouncing the practical lessons of hoary
experience for the futile notions of a vain projector." Tbid., 91.

140 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

We have been speaking above of new tendencies and not of realiza
tions in schoolroom practices. Abundant evidence is present that
schools were very slow in conforming to the new methods. A few
examples of the conditions which prevailed between 1823 and 1850
indicate that the larger part of grammatical instruction remained a
slavish verbal repetition of rules and a desperate struggle with com-
plicated parsing formulae. This is the reason why it is appropriate to
call the period " parsing period." Throughout there was devotion to
what a Boston school committee of 1845 called more suggestively than
elegantly " the osteology of language." 71

2. OTHER AGENTS AND AGENCIES IN THE INDUCTIVE APPROACH.

It is not generally known that Warren Colburn, known chiefly for
his work in the field of arithmetic, prepared also a series of juvenile
readers consisting chiefly of excerpts from Maria Edgeworth's
stories.72 To each of the series Colburn attached a few of the prin-
ciples of grammar, and as the child completed his reading books he
completed likewise a portion of grammatical knowledge suitable for
young pupils. Colburn's principles of grammar took the form of
instructions to teachers; they in turn imparted them to pupils. It
will be noted that this is in essence the inductive approach, a decided

"Bos. Sch. Kept., 1845, 16.

1822. Charlotte Academy, North Carolina : " Some who began to memorize Grammar
since the commencement of the session parsed blank verse with uncommon ease and
propriety." Coon, N. C, Sch. and Acad., 1790-1840, 230; Western Carolinian, July 9,
1822.

1827. A class in Lincolnton Academy was examined on " Memorizing English Gram-
mar." Ibid., 212. This is but little in advance of the practice of Wayne Academy in the
same State, where (in 1818) " the fifth class was examined on English Grammar from
the verb ' to have ' to Syntax ; the sixth class as far as the Substantive ; the seventh as
far as the Article, and the eighth to the verb ' to be.' " Ibid., 634, Raleigh Register, Oct.
9, 1818.

1828. Report of a committee on common schools, Connecticut. " Children may be
found who have committed to memory their Grammar, their Geography, and the Intro-
duction to the Spelling Book half a dozen times each and yet no wiser for practical pur-
poses than before. . . . Grammar and Geography are committed to memory rather than
taught for after years of study ; . . . the pupils often have little or no practical knowl-
edge of either, especially the former. This is due to the fact that the books themselves
are not usually adapted to the pupils' capacity, partly to the ignorance of inexperience of
the teacher." Am. An. of Ed. and Ins., 1832, 247-8.

1842. Fifth report of Horace Mann. " If the teacher is conversant with no better way
than to put a common textbook of Grammar into the hands of beginners and to hear
lessons recited by them day after day concerning definitions and rules while as yet they
are totally Ignorant of the classes of words defined ... he surely has no aptness to
teach grammar. The question is often asked, When or at what age children should begin
to study grammar? If it is to be studied in the way described above, one would almost be
tempted to reply, never." Com. Sch. J., 1842, 337.

1845. Boston school committee gave an examination to find grade of work done. " It
would seem impossible for a scholar to parse a stanza of Childe Harold correctly and yet
fail to see the force of the metaphors, etc., . . . yet this is done sometimes. Such is the
power of close attention to the osteology of language, to the bones and articulations, in
forgetfulness of the substance that covers, and the spirit that animates them." Bos. Sch.
Rept., 1845, 16.

72 These books were First, Second, Third, and Fourth Lessons in Reading and Grammar.
Boston, 1831, 38, 44.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 141

improvement over Roswell Smith's plan and in signal contrast to the
traditional procedure. Colburn's four series of lessons in reading
and grammar were not so widely used as his arithmetics. They did
not lend themselves to the scheme of making grammar a separate
study and were primarily for beginners. However, the prestige of his
name and success in arithmetic attracted attention to his grammati-
cal labors. His Pestalozzian methods, with emphasis on objective,
oral, visual, explanatory, and simplified instruction, did much to lay
the foundation for the educational revival which sprang up along
inductive lines before 1850.73

Colburn was influenced by one man whose importance is often
neglected, his most intimate friend, James G. Carter.74 Of him
Barnard declares " to him more than any one person belongs the
credit of having first arrested the attention of the leading minds in
Massachusetts to the necessity of immediate and thorough improve-
ment of the public schools." 75 Carter was instrumental in inducing
Colburn to adopt inductive methods.76 His advanced position in the
philosophy of teaching grammar, as early as 1824, is remarkable.
After setting forth the faulty practices of his day he adds :

The system proceeds upon the supposition that the language was invented and
formed by the rules of grammar. Nothing is more false. A grammar can never
be written till a good knowledge of the language is attained ; and then, contrary
to what the pupil supposes, the grammar is made to suit the language. Now,
why neglect this natural method in teaching language to young learners?"

Again, " The schoolbooks . . . are certainly not written on the
inductive method, and these are our instructors. . . . The essential
principle, on which they are written, is the same through all changes.
This is wrong and should be corrected." 78 The significance of this
language lies in the fact that it was published in 1824, shortly before
Roswell Smith, Colburn, and others attempted to put into grammati-
cal textbooks the changes which Carter champions.

Reference has already been made to the fact that Neef, a repre-
sentative of Pestalozzi, who was brought to America in 1806 and

"Barnard, Ed. Biog., 208.

" After Colburn's death Carter wrote to Mrs. Colburn : " No man ever drew out my
heart as did Warren Colburn. No one has ever filled the aching void of his loss."
Ibid., 217.

"Ibid., 182.

79 Letters to Prescott, last three chapters. Carter also was instrumental in establishing
the office to which Mann was elected in Massachusetts.

77 In " Letters to Prescott " (pp. 72-4) Carter argues that facts are to be learned first ;
that rules are merejy the verbal generalization of facts. " They are abstract principles,
the truth of which can neither be perceived, understood, nor believed till some single
instance . . . presents itself to the learner. . . . The rule ... is obtained by a patient
induction of particular instances and is put in words, not to teach us anything, but to classify
what has already been learned. . . . The abstract principles of a language give no more
adequate idea of the particulars from which they have been formed than the labels give
of the nature and obligation of a note. . . . The facts of a language . . . are always
first learned. . . . The rules in the learner's memory are perfectly useless till he has
learned the particulars or facts of the language."

"Ibid., 66.

142 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

•

established a school in Philadelphia, was naturally outspoken in his
opposition to the prevailing methods of teaching grammar. He
asserted that " grammar and incongruity are identical things," and
attempted to reach correct use of the vernacular by direct means
associated with object teaching, rejecting practically all that had bee
taught under the name of grammar.79

Three other men prominent in the educational revival, especially as
its changes affected the teaching of grammar, are Asa Rand, Henry
Barnard, and Horace Mann. Eand was the author of " The Teachers'
Manual for Instructing in English Grammar." 80 Rand applies in
this pedagogical manual the fundamental fact about grammar, stated
so effectively by Carter above : " In forming a system of rules for a
written and cultivated language, its principles were obtained by dis-
covery, not by invention." It is significant that this passage is from
a lecture on methods of teaching grammar and composition before the
American Institute of Instruction in 1833.81 The lessons published
by Rand are quite in keeping with the methods of inductive approach.

But to Henry Barnard and Horace Mann are to be ascribed the
influences which most contributed to the reform that culminated in
the transfer of emphasis from the word to the sentence as the unit of
grammatical study, in the growing conception of grammar as a
science of sentences, not as the art of writing and speaking. For five
successive years (1838-1841) Barnard, then State superintendent of
schools of Connecticut, sent a series of questions to every teacher of
English grammar in the State. The queries involve all the essential
features of inductive teaching, discussed in more detail in the follow-
ing section. There is no way of estimating the influence of Barnard's
constant emphasis on these new principles ; the effects on school prac-
tices must have been great. Representative queries sent out by
Barnard were as follows:

1. Do you make your pupils understand that the rules of grammar are only
the recognized uses of language?

2. Do you give elementary instruction as to the parts of speech and rules of
construction in connection with reading lessons?

3. Do you accustom your pupils to construct sentences of their own, using
different parts of speech, on the blackboard?

4. Have you formed the habit of correct speaking, so as to train, by your
own example, your pupils to be good practical grammarians?

5. At what age do your pupils commence this study? 82

As early as 1827 William C. Woodbridge wrote in his journal :

It is not a perfect knowledge of a treatise on grammar or a surprising fluency
in parsing that will be sure to produce . . . correctness of expression. . . .

79 Monroe, Pestalozzian Movement, 47.

80 Published in Boston, 1832. A series of lessons in teaching grammar were the sub-
stance of this manual. The lessons are also printed in Am. J. and An. of Ed. and Ins.,
I, 162, etc.

"Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1833), 160. "Barnard, Am. J. of Ed., I, 692.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 143

The evil usually to be guarded against is that of trusting too much to the
didactic exposition of grammar as given wholly in school books, and not using
sufficient diligence to make the whole subject intelligible and familiar by plain
conversion and constant practical exercise. What is needed in teaching gram-
mar is full oral explanation, to prepare the learner; . . . next to this is frequent
practice in writing (let the composition be ever so humble).83

Barnard and Mann at the head of State school systems were in posi-
tions of advantage for pushing the reforms they advocated. But even
before Mann's influence was felt as a State officer in Massachusetts
we find here and there a progressive school committee which had
caught the new spirit in regard to grammar. Samuel Shattuck, of
the school committee of Concord, Mass., reported to the town meeting,
November 6, 1830, that—

Grammar, taught according to the usual system, is productive of little practi-
cal good. A mere knowledge of parsing does not give a person the use of
language. The inductive method, which commences with learning to express
the most simple and proceeds to the more complex ideas, arriving at just rules
for their construction at each step of its progress, seems to be the most natural
in gaining a knowledge of language. The scholar should be required to make
the application of every rule, in ivriting, not merely in the examples laid down
in his textbook but in describing other objects.8*

This statement is highly suggestive of both the method of parsing
prevalent in 1830 and the. new processes which we shall consider in
the following section.

After Mann had aroused the State we find very frequent statements
from the school committees of the various counties indicating the
pressure that was being brought to bear against the " big three " of
grammatical instruction. Charlestown committee, in 1840, says:

Young men go from school with skill in parsing, or analyzing sentences, that
would make the eyes of grammarians glisten with delight, and yet . . . prefer
. . . the bastinado rather than compose a piece of reasoning. . . . Yet the
object of learning grammar is to write and speak the English language with
propriety ; ... to make the mind capable of forming independent opinions. . . .
Can not something more be done for this than now is done? w

With amusing errors in diction, the school officials of Dracot, in
the same State and year, inveigh against formalism as follows : •

Long lessons, correctly recited from memory, though they may sound well,
and may be listened to with much interest, do not necessarily imply knowledge.
They may show that a scholar has been industrious in getting his lessons. . . .
Against this hollow, deceptive practice . . . your committee have taken a
decided stand; . . . have given teachers strict charge ... to go, not over them
[lessons] but into them ; not round them but through them. ... In doing this,
our object has been to learn . . . scholars to reason as well as to commit to

» Am. An. of Ed. (1827), 681-2.

M Am. J. and An. of Ed. and Ins. (1831), 138.

ss Mass. Sen. Ret. (1840), 49.

86 Ibid., 55, 6.

144 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

3. CHIEF FEATURES OF THE INDUCTIVE MOVEMENT APPLIED

GRAMMMAR.

•

1

The chief features of the inductive movement as they were applie
to grammar have been suggested in the preceding sections. The
were three in number : First, the attempt to make learners understand
thoroughly every step of their progress ; second, the use of oral anc
visual instruction as a means of removing the tedium of book learn
ing; and, third, the addition of the pupil's own activity in actually
applying principles as he learned them, not only by means of addi-
tional exercises for parsing and correcting false syntax but also of
exercises in sentence building and composition. All these were to be
taught in close association with grammar.

REVOLT AGAINST MEANINGLESS INSTRUCTION.

The revolt against instruction meaningless to pupils was led by
Horace Mann, whose guiding principle was the zealous advocacy of
oral as against exclusive textbook instruction, of the word as against
the traditional alphabet method, of the objective, illustrative, and
explanatory method of teaching as against the abstract and subjec-
tive.87 Mann's leadership is clearly seen in the thinking of school
committees of Massachusetts, in the decade between 1840 and 1850.
They frequently objected to teaching the signs of thought, rather
than the thought itself.88 In 1840 the committee of the town of
Athol expressed the opinion : u Confessedly one of the most serious
defects existing in the system of education ... is the communica-
tion, to the mind of the youth, of the signs of thought more than the
thought themselves." 89 This struck to the very heart of the error of
teaching in both reading and grammar up to 1850. The word was the
unit of approach, the idea signified of secondary importance. Favor-
able comment upon the results of normal training for teachers with
special reference to making the pupils understand is not uncommon.
For example, in the Lancaster report of 1840 we find :

The practice of calling the attention of classes to the meaning of what they
study is of the greatest value, but it is comparatively new in our schools and by

"Anderson, Hist, of Com. Sch. Ed., 227.

88 A letter from a teacher who signs himself " Expertus sum." giving an imaginary con-
versation with a pupil in grammar, is indicative of numerous ideas found in educational
journals of the period.

" ' You say that you read in the English Reader ; do you study grammar? '

" • Yes, sir ; I have been through it several times, but I never parsed any yet.'

"'Whose system do you study?'

" ' Oh, I study my own grammar ; but it is almost worn out. I shall have to borrow
then, for father says he can't afford to buy me any new books this summer.'

" ' I meant who is the author of the grammar which you use ? '

" 'Author? I don't know what you mean.' " Am. J. and An. of Ed. and Ins., I, 476.

88 Sch. Ret. (1840), 87.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 145

no means yet fully used. We believe that if words are good for anything it is
for their meaning. . . . Let memory be joined with understanding.90

In close association with the agitation against the teaching of
meaningless terms was the growing demand that children must under-
stand the meaning of the grammatical principles they were called
upon to acquire. This is in the mind of the committee of Carver,
Mass., in 1839, when they reported : " We can not say that there are
many who get a thorough knowledge of grammar in our schools at
the present day, but we think that there are many who derive a con-
siderable understanding of it," whereupon they contrasted it with
the grammar teaching of the committee's youth.91 Not so favorable

were the opinions of the committee of Cummington County :

Your committee wish to notice that . . . the method of instruction is too
formal and mechanical, and not sufficiently directed to the understanding.
Teachers do not sufficiently illustrate the subject in which the scholar is
engaged. The scholar commits to memory a certain number of words, without
attaching them to a single idea, whereas ideas instead of words ought to be
learned.92

In a similar manner the school authorities of Amesbury demanded
in teachers " the ability of communicating in an understanding and
profitable manner what they are called upon to teach." 93 Those of
Essex suggested " the propriety of being cautious when engaging
teachers, to procure, if possible, . . . men who have some tact for
awakening and bringing out the powers of youth." 94 More force-
fully than elegantly the Athol committee expressed much the same
sentiment.

A teacher is not like a jug, which holds back its contents from necessity, or
like a cow which holds up her milk from inclination, the nearer full they are;
he should rather be like a rain cloud, which sends down blessings in showers,
and like a fountain ever flowing over.95

»°Ibid., 103.

The school committee of Weston, in 1841, inveighed against verbal instruction :'•...
the understanding of the scholar is not . . . properly exercised. A correct verbal recita-
tion seems the principal, if not the only, object to be attained ; . . . while the scholar
garners up a multitude of words, his mind adds nothing to his stock of ideas. Let the
young be taught to think." Ibid., 1841, 69.

The Westerfield committee, in the same year, voiced the oft-repeated complaint : " The
efforts of too many of our teachers have been confined to impart to the scholars' memory
a series of words, rather than to open their understanding to the reception of ideas."
Ibid., 128.

91 Ibid. (1839), 413. •» Ibid., 4.

MIbid., 1840, 143.

The Springfield committee felt the same need : " Let the rules of grammar ... be not
only committed to memory, but let their principles be understood, ... let the subjects
be so incorporated into . . . the thought . . . that their contents may be reproduced and
transmitted." Ibid., 172. That of Ashby also reported : "Another point noticed was the want
of familiar explanation ; . . . some teachers seemed to be content with receiving the answers
given in the book. . . . Such parrot-like recitations can be anything but interesting to the
teacher or pupil. Let the teacher, by familiar inquiries and explanations, know that the
subject ... is fully understood." Ibid., 1841, 40.

"Ibid., 8. 95Ibid., 75.

60258°— 22 10

146 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

.

A glimpse into one of the progressive schoolrooms of 1829 shows u
grammar being taught far in advance of its time. William A. Alcott,
afterwards associated with Woodbridge in the editorship of the Ameri-
can Journal of Education and the author of many articles on methods
of teaching, as a young man taught a district school of Southington,
Conn. Here he made marked advances especially in the teaching of
etymology. The account of his method of teaching pupils the mean-
ing of a verb reminds one of the actions often seen to-day in the class-
rooms of modern-language teachers who pursue what is known as
" the direct method." Without any preliminary information in
regard to what he was going to do, Alcott would ask the pupils to
take their slates and pencils. Then stamping the floor or clapping
his hands he would require them to write down what they saw him do.
This process he would have repeated with the actions of the pupils as
well as his own. " Now," he would say, " what have you been doing? "
He would point out that the words they had written described actions.
** These words describing actions are verbs. Now, what is a verb? "
In this manner the children were said to acquire as much knowledge
in 10 lessons as in an entire term under the older methods.96

The second feature of the educational revival which affected instruc-
tion in grammar was the attention given to visual and oral instruction.
In 1839 the school committee of Roxbury, Mass., struck a note not
frequently heard, namely, that the force of the teacher's example in
speaking and writing is the most important agency of instruction.
Their statement was that —

teachers should take care not to undo all their efforts to teach grammar by the
bad example of using false grammar themselves. They should watch over
their own . . . modes of address, as well as those of the children, for example's
sake. . . . It is necessary that teachers be . . . exemplary in conversation. . . ,,T

ATTENTION TO VISUAL AND ORAL INSTRUCTION.

The teacher's example is not a direct phase of what is known as
oral instruction. The term means rather that children are taught
principles by word of mouth; that is, the explanatory talks which
Kirkham had included in his text are to be presented in simple expla-
nations by the teachers themselves. This practice was so unfamiliar
in some towns that it attracted the notice of visiting committees, as
that of Newbury, Mass., which wrote, in 1839: "Another improve-
ment we noticed was the method of some teachers of communicating
knowledge . . . by familiar conversation and by questions on com-
mon subjects."98 The Egermont committee of 1843 found occasion
to praise —

86 Barnard, Ed. Biog., 261 ; also Am. J. of Ed. IV, 641.

87 Sen. Ret. (1839), 365.

88 Ibid., 1839, 33.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 147

the example in the winter school of district No. 2, of much oral instruction
instead of the common practice of very rigid confinement to the lesson book;
... a good teacher can talk into a child, in the space of three or four months,
an amount ... of practical knowledge . . . which the child could not read into
himself in the space of as many years."

Horace Mann, reviewing Edward's " First Lessons in Grammar,"
1843, asserts:

If a child is made to feel that the subject [grammar] is hard to understand
and that he is expected to grope his way in darkness ... he will be very likely
to construct a prejudice against it. . . . Many a teacher has felt that there
must be a better way of teaching grammar. . . . Edward's "First Lessons"
is not the old process of committing to memory and repeating. ... A method
is given by which a teacher explains whatever is difficult to the learner. . . .
The book is the substance of lessons in grammar given orally by the author in
school.1

This same note is struck by an editorial by William B. Fowle in
1850:

Grammar can be taught by oral instruction, by correcting the ungrammatical
language of the pupils, and by the example of the teacher much more easily and
more effectively than by committing to memory and reciting. ... An accom-
plished teacher may do more for a class of 20 in one hour, by exercises on the
blackboard, than he can do in a whole day for an individual who studies and
parses from a textbook.8

The first 24 pages of William H. Wells's " School Grammar," 1846,
are devoted to a section on oral instruction in English grammar, pre-
pared at the request of Barnard, at the time commissioner of public
schools in Rhode Island, and already published as one of Jiis series of
educational tracts.3 This section is not a part of the grammar itself
but is frankly given over to explicit directions to teachers as to how
to use the inductive methods and how to use illustrative exercises in
composition.4 One hundred and fifty thousand of these textbooks
were sold in the first five years. We have seen that his books

"Ibid. (1843), 188.

* Com. Sch. J., 1843, 167-8.

"After the part of speech . . . had been defined by the teacher and clearly compre-
hended by the pupils, they went to their seat to write examples in a book kept for that
purpose. It was sometimes found that listening to an explanation . . . and conversing
. . . were not sufficient ... on which account a textbook was required. This construc-
tive exercise is extremely interesting ; children are pleased with doing something." Ibid.

'Com. Sch. J. (1850), 146.

8 Wells, Sch. Gram., preface, IV.

*A sample of Wells's advice concerning instruction in the parts of speech may be
quoted : " The classification of words may be introduced by referring to the different kinds
of trees : to the different kinds of animals ; or to any other collection of objects that
admit of a regular division into distinct classes. Thus when we go into a forest, we fiDd
that the number of trees about us is greater than we can estimate. But we soon observe
that a certain portion of them have certain resemblances, while they differ essentially
from all the rest ; ... by extending our observation, we find ... all trees . . . belong
to a few very simple classes, . . . Oak trees, . . . Pine trees. . . . Just so it is with the
words of our language. ... By some introductory illustration the curiosity of a class
of beginners may be excited. . . The teacher should lead his pupils to take an active
part in these lessons from the beginning." Ibid., II, 12.

148 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

were scattered through various States. Wells himself later became
superintendent of schools in Chicago. It is probable that his infli
ence more than that of any other man really introduced oral instruc
tion and explanation into classroom instruction in English grammar
Visual instruction was also brought into the field of teaching gram-
mar after 1825. As late as 1835 the idea of using slates and black-
boards was exceedingly novel ; in only a few schools does it appear to
have been attempted before that time. William A. Alcott, whom we
have seen above dispensing with grammar books as far as possible,
testifies that in 1830 " the idea of studying grammar with slates and
pencils was so novel that I found no difficulty in gaining general
attention." Children wrote names of different objects held before
them; they read the lists aloud, classified them, and wrote new lists
of objects of which they could think. Thus was employed a combi-
nation method of visual instruction and pupils' activity.5 Rules and
regulations for the schools of Salem, Mass., require that " every lesson
(in grammar) shall be accompanied by operations on the blackboard .
and slates (from the younger pupils), and exercises in parsing shall
be required from the older classes." 6 In an article on normal schools,
in 1843, the advice is given that —

the first principles should be taught orally and by the blackboard and slate. So
taught, they are easy and pleasant, and throw valuable light upon the arts of
reading and composition. The use of the blackboard is very important. Write
on the board, " It is she," not " It is her ! " Require the pupils to make for
themselves, and write on their slates, ten examples of similar mistakes, and
their corrections. The rule is learnt better than by months of repeating the
rule in parsing, where the mind is little better than passive.7

Again, James Ray, a prominent teacher of this decade, in 1830
advises :

In the study of Grammar the blackboard may be used to exhibit the inflec-
tions of the various parts of speech ; it may also be used in syntax, to point out
the connection of the principal words to each other. The method of doing this
is by writing on the board the sentence to be parsed, and then connecting by
curved lines those words that have any grammatical connection with each
other. The instructor at the same time pointing out what that relation is. It
may be observed that in teaching grammar the use of the blackboard is con-
fined to the teaching the elementary principles of the science, [and] is used by
the teacher for the purpose of illustrating these principles.8

The foregoing is the earliest reference the writer has seen pointing
to the use of diagrams, which, after the middle of the century, came
into great prominence in the analysis of sentences.

Massachusetts school committees often spoke in commendation of
the new movement for blackboards facilitating instruction in gram-

«Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1837), 165.

•Com. Sen. J. (1842), 78.

»Ibid. (1843), 331

•Ray, Transactions of College Teachers, VI, 104.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 149

mar. For instance, the Dighton committee said, in 1843 : " The black-
board has been introduced into several schools. ... By means of
this the study of Orthography and English Grammar has been
facilitated." 9

Samuel J. May gi.ves a hint concerning the very earliest appear-
ances of blackboards, when, describing a visit to the school of Rev.
Father Francis Brosius in Boston, in 1814, he said : " On entering
his room we were struck at the appearance of a Blackboard suspended
on the wall. ... I had never seen such a thing before . . . and there
I first witnessed the process of analytical and inductive teaching." 10
It is quite certain, however, that not for two decades after 1814 did
the rank and file of Massachusetts schools adopt this device now
regarded as so indispensable for visual instruction. William C.
Woodbridge, in the report of a Boston school committee on improve-
ments, in 1833, strongly recommended slates and cards in the primary
schools. He added that means for visual instruction were positively
forbidden in Boston by the general committee.11 In the common
schools of Connecticut as late as 1832 " slates, blackboards, and appa-
ratus are almost entirely unknown in the district schools," a commit-
tee on common schools testified.12 Massachusetts counties in general
waited for the boards until after 1840.13

INTRODUCTION OF CONSTRUCTIVE WORK.

The third prominent feature of innovating methods before 1850
was the introduction of constructive work on the part of the pupils,
which gradually took the form of composition. Of course dictation
and copying exercises were very old,14 and disputations dated far
before the beginnir^s of instruction in the vernacular. Moreover,
writing of a sort had accompanied work in grammar in the days of
Murray's dominance in American schools. But composition as an
adjunct to the study of grammar did not become prominent until
Barnard, Fowle, Mann, Carter, Rand, and others championed and
advanced it. Fowle, in an editorial of 1852, says that —

even now, a large number of our schools have no composition taught in them.
No wonder, for not one teacher in 10 can write with tolerable ease and correct-
ness. In an institute in Massachusetts (1850) we required 117 teachers to
write what they could in fifteen minutes on " happiness." At the end of fifteen
minutes, but seven teachers had done anything, and four of these had requested
to be excused from writing. The three more periods of fifteen minutes were
given, and only twenty teachers had been able to write anything in the end.

•An. Kept. Supt. Ed. (1843), 234.

10 Barnard, Ed. Biog., 38.

11 Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1833). 587.
"Ibid. (1832), 248.

" Ashbunham comments, in 1841 : " Schoolrooms have been more generally furnished
with blackboards.' Kept. Supt. Ed. (1841), 71. See also ibid., 78; 1843, 234; 1841, 27.
« See Chap. V, p. 127.

150 ENGLISH GRAMMAR m AMERICAK SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

truc-

Fowle then pertinently asks : " How can such teachers give instruc
tion in English Grammar ? " 15

The Massachusetts school reports are especially clear in indicating
that composition as such was a product of the decade 1830 and 1840.
In 1840 Sterling reported that " the exercise of composition has been
introduced into some schools with encouraging success. This impor-
tant branch has been too much neglected in former years. . . . Eng-
lish Composition should come next in order ... to grammar." 16

The committee of Carver, in 1839, explained that 20 years earlier
the art of composing and writing received no attention :

It is true we were set to making marks, and dashing and pointing them with
our pens (writing) . . . but . . . there are but few now, who were scholars
then, that can compose, write and fold a letter, in a handsome form, as large
numbers of our children from ten to fifteen years of age can."

The Rockport committee " urged upon the more advanced scholars,
who are acquainted with grammar, the importance of writing com-
position. . . . This should be a standing exercise in our schools. . . .
This exercise is too much regarded as a matter of form." 18 Here it
is to be noted that composition first came into the curriculum only
after the pupil had some acquaintance with grammar. Later periods
reversed the order, composition preceding grammar. This consti-
tutes a very important consideration. The committee of Dana, in
1843, commended oral composition in the following language :

The practice was particularly recommended by the committee, of urging the
classes, instead of giving arbitrary rules from the book, to explain their opera-
tion, and to give their reasons in their own language. . . . Exercises in com-
position have been attended to in some of the schools.19

Only one Massachusetts committee, in 1843, found a satisfactory
condition :

In the juvenile department in this school there was a new thing exhibited at
the examination, about fifteen letters, and pieces of original composition, writ-
ten by little children under ten years of age, and written with a simplicity,
correctness and beauty, which surprised as much as it delighted us.M

The list of questions which Barnard sent to the Connecticut teach-
ers (1838-1841, inclusive) are indicative of the most advanced thought
of the day.21

1. Do you classify your pupils in reference to teaching composition?

2. Do you accustom your youngest pupils to write or print words and short
sentences on the slate, from your dictation?

3. Do you ask them to print or write something about what they have seen in
coming to school, or read in the reading lesson?

4. As a preliminary exercise in composition, do you engage them in familiar
talk about something they have seen in their walk, or has happened in or about

"Com. Sch. J. (1852). 375. 19 Ibid. (1843), 83.

"Mass. Sch. Ret. (1840), 123. 2° Ibid. (1843), 215.

"Ibid. (1839), 413. "Am. J. of Ed., I, 692.
18 Ibid. (1841), 27.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 151

the school? and when they have got ideas, and can clothe them orally in words,
do you allow them as a privilege to write or print the same 011 the slate or
paper?

5. Do you give out a number of words, and then ask your pupils to frame
sentences in which those words are used?

6. Do you require your older pupils to keep a journal or give an account of the
occurrences of the day, as an exercise in composition?

7. Do you instruct your pupils as to the most approved form of dating, com-
mencing, and closing a letter?

8. Do you require your pupils to write a letter in answer to some supposed
inquiries about some matter of fact?

9. Do you request your older pupils to write out what they can recollect of a
sermon or lecture they have heard, or of a book they have been reading?

10. At what age do your pupils usually commence writing easy sentences or
compositions?

The exceeding reluctance with which authors of treatises on gram-
mar and teachers of this subject came to the realization that construc-
tive written work on the part of pupils ought to accompany every
stage of their progress is clearly marked in America before 1850.
Priestley as early as 1772 recommends the practice in his preface,22
but neither his nor contemporary textbooks are constructed with this
purpose in mind. Even earlier than Priestley we have seen the
Philadelphia Academy and other schools of advanced ideas employ-
ing composition, but not primarily as an adjunct to grammar.23 But
the fact is that the practice was not prevalent in American schools.
This is evident not only from the complete absence of suggestions
for composition in the earlier grammars but also from frequent
testimony.24

22 " We must introduce into the schools English grammar, English composition, and
frequent English translations from authors in other languages. The common objection
to English Compositions, that it is like requiring brick to be made without straw (boys not
being supposed to be capable of so much reflection, as is necessary to treat any subject
with propriety) is a very frivolous one since it is very easy to contrive a variety of exer-
cises introductory to themes upon moral and scientific subjects, in many of which the
whole attention may be employed upon language only ; and from thence youth may be led
on in a regular series of compositions, in which the transition from language to sentiment
may be as gradual and easy as possible." Priestley, 3d ed., preface, XXI.

» See Chap. Ill, p. 46.

2* " We were two or three years in grammar ; ... we were never required to write a
sentence of English, and we never did write one as a school exercise." Wallis, speaking
of Boston schools about 1800. Com. Sch. J. (1850), 5.

'•We were educated at one of the best schools . . . but, although we studied English
grammar seven years and received a silver medal for our proficiency, we never wrote a
sentence of English at school and never did anything which implied a suspicion on
our part that grammar had anything to do with writing or conversation." Ibid., editorial
(1849), 258.

" Composition was unknown to us. We were supposed to acquire ' the art of writing
the English Language with propriety' by a textbook study of Orthography, Etymology.
Syntax and Prosody, without writing even a sentence." Swett, speaking of the period,
1830-1840, Am. Pub. Sch., 122.

" We think it would be but a counterpart to our grammars for children if some philoso-
pher were to publish a treatise as a mode for discovering the center of gravity, and the
laws of motion, in order to teach the children how to walk and run." Review of Everst's
English Grammar, 1835, Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1835), 429.

152 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

It is significant, then, to find grammars after 1820 deliberately
planning exercises in composition. They do not attempt " themes
upon moral and scientific subjects," as Priestley advised ; indeed, their
suggestions for written work may not properly be called composition
at all. Koswell Smith's title, " Sentences to be written," is far more
exact. Kirkham had nothing to contribute to this advance, content-
ing himself with elaborate parsing and false syntax. Goold Brown
follows Murray in placing exercises after each of the four divisions
of his grammar, urging that the pupils " should write out " 25 their
answers. Smith is entitled to the credit of making the first distinctive
step toward the practice of sentence building. Scattered through his
text are numerous headings entitled " Sentences to be written." The
purpose is to -employ the constructive activities of pupils as a means
of fixing the grammatical principles they have just been studying.26
Remembering the dates of Smith's books — 1829 and 1831 — we see
that he stands in point of time at the head of the movement for com-
position in Massachusetts discussed above.27

Wells, in 1846, urged that teachers write models on the board, and
that they also write lists of words and have the pupils compose sen-
tences embracing them. He goes a step in advance, advising : "After
the pupils have in this manner exemplified the various modifications
of the parts of speech, they should be required to write several com-
positions of considerable length." 28 Naturally we find Greene, in his
"Analysis of Sentences," taking even more advanced ground. In his
preface he affirms that " the only successful method of obtaining a
knowledge of that art (writing and speaking correctly) is by. means
of construction and analysis.29 In the text proper construction exer-
cises begin on page 13, a footnote saying : " These exercises may be
written or recited orally. It is recommended that the practice of writ-

25 English Grammar, 100.

M Sentences to be written :

" ' Q. Will yon compose two sentences, each having a different adjective pronoun ? One,
having a demonstrative pronoun? One, having an indefinite pronoun used as a noun?'"
Eng. Gram. Prod. Sys., 58.

21 Richard G. Parker's book. " Progressive Exercises in English Composition," Boston,
1832, enjoyed a remarkable sale. It reached its forty-fifth edition in 1845. New editions
were published in 1855 and 1856. Parker published a " Sequel " in 1835 and. in 1844,
"Aids to English Composition." which reached its twentieth edition in 1850. The sal» of
these series is indicative of the trend toward composition. Parker, collaborating with C.
Fox, in 1834, published also " Progressive Exercises in English Grammar." Part II, 1835,
Part III, 1840. A favorable review of the first book describes it as being " without a
formidable array of long definitions and unintelligible rules." Am. An. of Ed. and Ins.
(1835), 47.

28 Sch. Gram., 24.

29 Analysis. 4. Contrast this with Goold Brown's statement : " The only successful
method of teaching grammar is to cause the principal definitions and rules to be com-
mitted thoroughly to memory, that they may ever afterwards be readily applied." Brown,
preface, VI. The contrasted statements indicate the two radically different conceptions of
grammatical instruction, one of which was passing, the other of which was entering, in
1850.

CHANGES IN METHOD BEFORE 1850. 153

ing lessons should be adopted as a general rule." 30 Moreover, Greene
desires that " the exercises, after being corrected, should be copied
into a writing book." 31

As may be expected, it is impossible to assign a date at which con-
structive work, closely associated with grammatical study, entered
school practice. However, it appears safe to say that it was the out-
come of the influences we have seen at work in the period between
1825 and 1850.32 The discussion may be fittingly closed' by citing the
practice of two schools, which for their generation were exceedingly
progressive. A teacher of 1830, describing methods which he has
found profitable, recommends voluntary composition, the pupils to
continue their work on their own account by keeping journals. The
variety of exercises suggested includes writing abstracts from mem-
ory; taking notes on lectures; abridgments; dialogues, real and
imaginary; stories for children; narratives of personal adventure;
discussion of questions; and the like. The voluntary reading of
articles at stated periods is also recommended.33 Of course this pro-
cedure is exceedingly advanced; it is practically composition as we
understand the term to-day. A more representative program of the
period in question is found in the following account of a female school
of Boston in 1832 :

Care has been taken to improve all occasional opportunities of directing the
attention of the pupils to the etymology, the signification, and the appropriate
use of words, as they occur in connection, and while the interest felt in their
meaning is still fresh in the mind. Exercises in the defining of words and in the
distinguishing synonyms are occasionally prescribed. The practice of substi-
tuting equivalent words, phrases, sentences, and thoughts is likewise employed.
The analysis of figurative language to the same end, A practical course in
grammar is comprehended in the daily exercises in composition and a systematic
view of the principles of the science has been taken.34

GENERAL SUMMARY.

Methods of teaching grammar have now been traced for about 100
years from its beginnings in America about 1750 to the middle of the
nineteenth century. For the first 75 years instruction centered almost

30 Analysis. 13.

81 Ibid., 18, 1.

32 John Flint, who published " First Lessons in English Grammar upon a Plan Inductive
and Intellectual," in 1833, deserves credit for pioneer work in sentence building, antedat-
ing Greene 12 years. An editorial in the American Annals says : " Decidedly thp best
introductory work we have seen. The pupil's knowledge is given by examples and sen-
tences in which he finds words corresponding to definitions, and the pupil writes sentences
as soon as may be." Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1833). 334. Dyer H. Sanborn's "Analytical
Grammar," 1836. receives similar commendation. Ibid. (1837), 143. F. W. Felch's "A
Comprehensive Grammar," 1837. affirms on the title page : " Designed to make the study
of grammar and composition one and the same process." Ibid. (1837), 525. Of Wells and
Greene a committee on Boston free schools declared, in 1851, that they were adopted " all
over the land " as a protest against teaching Murray's Latin grammar for English." Cora.
Sch. J. (1851), 36.

S3Erodore, Am. An. of Ed. and Ins., I, 266-9.

"Am. An. of Ed. and Ins. (1832), 215.

154 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

entirely around memorizing, correcting false syntax, and parsing. Of
these all three were transferred directly from practices customary in
studying Latin grammar. About the year 1823 changes began to
creep into class instruction. Although the three traditional methods
still predominated, especially* parsing and memorizing, influences
were at work which made the need of remedies felt in the educational
revival of the second quarter of the century. Most conspicuous among
the innovations were, first, earnest efforts to make the pupils under-
stand; second, visual and oral instruction; and, third, the beginnings
of constructive work. Most conspicuous among grammarians were
Kirkham and Smith, Wells and Greene ; among educational leaders,
Carter, Rand, Barnard, and Mann. The results of their labors were
indeed a veritable revolution, both in the conception of grammar and
in the methods of instruction, a revolution the nature of which is
well illustrated by comparing Goold Brown's statement of 1823 with
the corresponding statement of Greene in 1847 :

The only successful method of teaching grammar is to cause the principal
definitions and rules to be committed thoroughly to memory. ( Brown. )

The only successful method of obtaining a knowledge of the art is by means
of construction and analysis.35 (Greene.)

88 Consideration of methods after 1850 is reserved for another study. Between 1850 and
1920 we may distinguish three fairly marked periods : That of 1847-1873, which may be
termed the inductive period, characterized by the methods whose origin has just been
presented ; that of 1873-1891, which may be termed the rhetorical period, marked by Swin-
ton's "Language Lessons," White's grammars (1871), the Harvard entrance require-
ments of 1873, and the Connecticut order dropping grammar in 1891 ; and that of 1891-
1920, which may be termed the elimination period or the incidental study period, the chief
tendency of which is the gradual subordination of formal grammar to its proper place as
incidental to the study of composition and literature.

APPENDIX A.

CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS IN
AMERICA BEFORE 1800.

Henry Barnard, speaking of his list of early American textbooks,36
indicates the viewpoint in which the present list is compiled. He
says : " This information in many cases is very imperfect and unsatis-
factory, but it will at least serve as the clue to further inquiry ; . . .
many errors . . . and omissions will doubtless be detected in regard
to those books which the compiler has not seen, and whose titles, dates,
and places of publication and authorship have been gleaned from
numerous sources not always reliable."

GRAMMARS USED IN AMERICA BEFORE 1850.

1706. Greenwood, James. Essay Toward a Practical English Grammar, 2d ed.,

London, 1711, 12°, 315 pp.
1724- Jones, Hugh. A Short English Grammar: An Accidence to the English

Tongue. London.

See Chapter II for further description of the first 10 grammars in this list.
1740. Dilworth, Thomas. A New Guide to the English Tongue, Containing a

Brief but Comprehensive English Grammar. London.
1751. Harris, James. Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Universal

Grammar. 6th ed., 1806, 468 pp., 8°.

Harris's work was not a textbook, but was influential in shaping most of

the grammars earliest in America. Murray acknowledges his indebtedness.

(Introduction, 5.) Harris was an innovator and simplifler among gram-
marians, using only four classes of words, after Aristotle. Book reprinted

in Philadelphia. Wickersham, Hist, of Ed. in Pa., 202. Reached 7th ed.,

1825. Com. Sch J., Ill, 209.

175 — . Wiseman, . English Grammar.

Advertised, Boston Evening Post, Oct. 27, 1760.
1753. Fisher, A. A Practical New Grammar. 28th ed., London, 1795, 176 pp.,

12°.

Follows Harris with four kinds of speech ; no cases, no moods, only three

tenses. Brown used "A New Edition, Enlarged, Improved and Corrected,

1800."
1758. Lowth. Robert. A Short Introduction to English Grammar. 1st Amer.

ed., London, 1775, 132 pp. 12°.

38 Barnard's list, Am. J. of Ed., XII, XIII, XIV; also William H. Wells's list in the
preface of his "A Grammar of the English Language.'' Boston, 1852, edition. A writer
who signs himselt W. H. W. (probably William II. Wells) began a series of articles on
English grammars in The Common School Journal Illness compelling him to cease his
labors, another writer who signs his articles " Wallis " (probably W. M. Fowle), con-
tinued the series under the title " Grammars Published in America before 1804." C. S. J.,
IX, X, XI, XII. A fourth list, "American Textbooks," anonymous, is found in Barnard's
American Journal of Education, 14, 600. For all books published in America before 1792
Evans's "American Bibliography " is the standard source. Evans is not infallible, how-
ever; a few books before 1792 have apparently not come to his attention. Goold Brown,
in his " Grammar of Grammars," 1851, presents a list of some 350 authors or compilers of
grammatical textbooks.

The present writer has added several items of information, mostly fragmentary, from
announcements of publishers, from book reviews in the early educational journals, and
from stray references in town histories, reports of school societies, addresses in educa-
tional conventions, and pedagogical tracts.

155

156 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

1160. [Anonymous.] The British Grammar. 1st American ed., 1784, 251

PP., 8°.
1760. Gough* James. English Grammar. 212 pp., 18°.

Advertised, Providence Gazette, Oct. 24, 1767. 1760 is date of 2d ed. "A

publication of little merit, much of it borrowed from earlier writers." W. H.

Wells, Com Sch. J., Ill, 210.

1762. Priestley, Joseph. The Rudiments of English Grammar. 3d ed., London,

202 pp., IS0.

Reprinted in Philadelphia. Wickersham, op. cit., 202. Simplifier, like
Harris and Fisher. "A production of little merit." Wells, op. cit., 229.

1763. Ash, John. Grammatical Institutes, or an Easy Introduction to Dr.

Lowth's English Grammar. London, 163 pp. 24°.

First American reprint, 1774, by Hugh Gaine, New York. Evans, 5, 5.

1765. Johnson, Somuel. An English Grammar; the First Easy Rudiments of

Grammar Applied to the English Tongue By One Who is Extremely
Desirous to Promote Good Literature in America, and Especially a
Right English Education for the Use of Schools. New York, 36 pp..
12°.

This appears to have been the first English grammar prepared by an
American and published in America. Evans, Am. Bibl., 4, 18, 10025. See
Chap. II, p. 35.

1766. Burn, John. A Practical Grammar of the English Language. Glasgow,

18°.

1767. Buchanan, James. A Regular English Syntax. 194 pp., 12°.

First American reprint, 1780. Evans, 6, 68. "A most egregious plagiarism,
borrowed from the British Grammar, half the volume copied verbatim."
Wells, op. cit., 3, 237.

1772. Adam, Alexander. Latin and English Grammar. Edinburgh.

"An English Grammar that was connected with Adams's Latin Grammar
. . . far more English than Murray's." Wallis, Com. Sch. J., XII, 118.

1773, Byerley, Thomas. A Plain and Easy Introduction to English Grammar.

New York.
177 — . Hall, James. English Grammar.

Hall founded a school (1778) In Bethany, N. C. He conducted classes in

English grammar ; wrote and published a book that had wide circulation.

Raper, The Church and Private Schools of North Carolina, 55, citing Foote's

Sketches, 336.
1779. Curtis, Abel. A Compend of English Grammar, Being an Attempt to

Point Out the Fundamental Principles of the English Language.

Dresden (Dartmouth College), 49 pp., 16°.
Benezet, Anthony. An Essay Toward the Most Easy Introduction to the

Knowledge of the English Grammar. 6 pp., 12°.
Compiled for the Pennsylvania Spelling Book. Evans lists the grammar

also as a separate book. Evans, 6, 4.
178^. Webster, Noah, jr. A Grammatical Institute of the English Language.

In three parts. Part 2, Containing a Plain and Comprehensive

Grammar Grounded on the True Principles and Idioms of the

Language. Hartford. 139 pp., 16°.
Kenrick, William. A Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language.

Philadelphia.

1785. Bingham, Caleb. The Young Ladies Accidence; or a Short and Easy

Introduction to English Grammar; Designed Principally for the
Use of Young Learners, More Especially Those of the Fair Sex,
though Suitable to Both. Boston, 45 pp., 16°.

1786. Mennye, J. An English Grammar. New York.

1787. Ussher, George M. The Elements of English Grammar. London.

American edition, 1790, Portsmouth, N. H. Evans, 8, 98. Printed for
J. Metcher, especially for young ladies. 3d Am. ed. in 1804, Exeter, N. H.

APPENDIX. 157

1787. Harrison, Ralph. Rudiments of English Grammar. Philadelphia, 102
pp.. 18°.

Mentioned by Wickersham as one of the first used in Pennsylvania. Hist,
of Ed. in Pa., 202. An English book, 9th ed., Philadelphia, 1812.
178 — . [Anonymous.] A Comprehensive Grammar. Philadelphia, 173 pp., 18°.
1789 is date of 3d ed. Evans, 7, 305.

1790. Webster. Noah. The Rudiments of English Grammar. Hartford, 80 pp.,

16°.

The Rudiments was first printed as part 2 of the Little Readers' Assistant ;
then, at the request of the Hartford school authorities, was twice printed
as a separate book, in 1790. Evans, 8, 105.

1791. Hutchins. Joseph. An Abstract of the First Principles of English Gram-

mar. Hartford, 24°.

Mentioned by George A. Plimpton. Murray, Hist, of Ed. in N. J., 51.
" Compiled for the use of his own school." Title page, Evans, 8, 164.

1792. Alexander, Caleb. A Grammatical System of the English Language.

Boston. 96 pp., 12°.

" Comprehending a Plain and Familiar Scheme of Teaching Young Gentle-
men and Ladies the Art of Speaking and Writing correctly their Native
Tongue." Evans, 8, 242. 10th ed., Keene, N. H., 1814.
[Anonymous.] The Young Gentlemen and Ladies' Accidence, or a Com-
pendious Grammar of the English Tongue, Plain and Easy. Boston.
Attributed to Noah Webster.
Humphries, Daniel. The Compendious American Grammar, or Gram-
matical Institutes in Verse. Portsmouth, N. H, 71 pp., 12°.

Tichnor, Elisha. English Exercises. 2 pp., 18°.

1792 is 3d ed. "All the rules of Parsing . . . facilitates grammatical
knowledge." Evans, 8, 363.
17,9//. Knowles, John. Principles of English Grammar. 3d ed.

1795. Carroll, James. American Criterion of English Grammar. New London,

Conn.

Dearborn, Benjamin. The Columbian Grammar. Boston, 12°.

George A. Plimpton assigns date, 1792. Murray, Hist, of Ed. in N. J., 51.

Used the question-and-answer method.
Miller. Alexander. Concise Grammar of the English Tongue. 119 pp.,

12°.
Murray, Lindley. English Grammar, Adapted to the Different Classes

of Learners. London.

1796. An English Grammar.

Barnard lists, by printer ; information very fragmentary.
Xyg — , Bullard, Asa. An Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, by a
Teacher of Youth. Boston.

10th ed. in 1817. Succeeded Bingham's Young Ladies' Accidence in Bos-
ton schools.
1897. Burr, Jonathan. A Compendium of English Grammar. Boston, 72 pp.,

18°.,
17.97. Macintosh, Duncan. An Essay on English Grammar. Boston, 239 pp., 8°.
179 — . Marshall. English Grammar.

Written by an American author, contemporary of Webster ; date uncer-
tain. Mentioned in Education in New Hampshire, Am. Ann. of Ed. and Ins.,
1833, 435.

1799. Stanford, Daniel. A Short but Comprehensive English Grammar. 18°.

2d ed. in 1800, 4th in 1807. "Fell into the traces of Murray." Wallis,
Com. Sch. ,L, 12, 203. Brown says 1st ed. 1807, 96 pp., 12°.

1800. Woodbridge, William. Plain and Concise Grammar.

George A. Plimpton, Hist, of Ed. in N. J., 51.

1801. Gurney, David. English Grammar. Boston. 18°.

2d ed.. 1808. Brown. Barnard calls it " Columbian Accidence."

1802. Cochran, Peter. An English Grammar. Boston, 71 pp., 18°.

APPENDIX B.

A COMPARISON OF THE ENGLISH PROGRAMS OF TURNBULL AND

FRANKLIN.

TURNBULL.

(From Observations on Liberal Educa-
tion (1742), 1762, ed\, 4-9.)

FRANKLIN.

(Smyth, Writings of Benj. Franklin.

II, 391 et seq.)

GRAMMAR.

" One exercise should be daily to write
a page of English, and after that to
examine every word by the grammar
rules, and every sentence they have
composed, to oblige them to give an
account of the * English syntax and
construction."

" The English Language might be
taught by Grammar."

COMPOSITION.

". . . who thinks it worth while learn-
ing to write this (mother tongue)?
Every one is suffered to form his own
stile by chance; to imitate the first
wretched model which falls in his way,
before he knows what is faulty, or can
relish the beauties of a just simplicity.
. . . Right education would have . . .
taught them to acquire habits of writ-
ing their own language easily under
right direction; and this would have
been useful to them as long as they
lived."

"The Stiles principally to be culti-
vated being the clear and the concise.
. . . To form their Stile, they should
be put on Writing Letters to each
other, making Abstracts of what they
read; or writing the same Things in
their own Words; telling or writing
Stories lately read, in their own re-
pressions. All to be revis'd and cor-
rected by the Tutor."

LITERATURE.

" I need not advise you to give them
a taste of our best poets."

" Some of our best Writers, as Tilled
son, Addison, Pope. Algernon Sidney.
Cato's letters, etc., should be classiks/'

SPEAKING.

". . . obliging them to speak every day
their unwritten thought on any sub-
ject in English. Let them read an Ora-
tion on Tully or Livy . . . then shut
the book, and speak the sense of it ex
tempore."
158

" Repeating Speeches, delivering Ora-
tions."

APPENDIX.

159

DECLAMATION.

" Make them read aloud gracefully,
an accomplishment that many men . . .
cannot perform, because they are
either unexperienced or bashful."

"To form their Pronunciation they
may be put oh Declamations. . . .

Reading should also be taught and
pronouncing, properly, distincting, em-
phatically."

FOR PROFESSIONS.

" Where is English taught at pres-
ent? Who thinks of it of use to study
correctly the language which he is to
use in daily life? ... It is in this
that nobility and gentry defend their
country ; ... it is in this that lawyers
plead, the divines instruct, and all
ranks of people write their letters and
transact all their affairs."

" It is therefore propos'd that they
learn those Things that are likely to
be most useful. . . . Regard being had
to the several Professions for which
they are intended."

Between the passages in Turnbull and in the proposals of Franklin there is
one striking dissimilarity. The former is outspoken in his condemnation of
Latin as a medium of universal education. Franklin, who in other places voices
the same sentiment, in his proposals contents himself merely with strong
emphasis upon English as the "most useful" and "most natural." Smyth, op.
cit., 38&-96. The explanation is simple: Turnbull was writing a book frankly
to substitute the vernacular and the realities for classical instruction, while
Franklin was propounding the program for a school he wished to establish. The
former could afford to denounce the opposition, the latter could not. As always
the practical man is cautious, conciliatory, compromising. The student of
Franklin's early advocacy of the mother tongue is frequently struck by the
extreme diplomacy with which he sought to bring it forward.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED IN THIS DISSERTATION,

I. PRIMARY SOURCES.

A. COLONY AND STATE LAWS, ARCHIVES, RECORDS, AND SCHOOL DOCUMENTS.

Connecticut. Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (1636-1776). Com-
piled by J. H. Trumbull and C. J. Hoadley. 15 vols. Hartford, 1850-90.

Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut in America. Hartford, printed

by Hudson & Goodwin, 1796.

Delaware. Laws of the State of Delaware from the 14th day of October, 1700,
to the 18th day of August, 1797. In 2 vols. Vol. II, Samuel and John
Adams. New Castle, 1747.

Louisiana. A New Digest of the Statute Laws of the State of Louisiana to 1841,
inclusive. Compiled by Bullard and Curry. Vol. I. New Orleans, E. Johns
& Co., 1842.

Maine. The Revised Statutes of the State of Maine, Passed October 22, 1840.
Augusta, William R. Smith & Co., 1841.

Massachusetts. Acts and Resolves, Passed by the Legislature of Massachu-
setts in the Year 1839, 1841. Published by the Secretary of the Common-
wealth. Dutton and Wentworth, Boston, 1839 and 1841.

The Perpetual Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from the

Establishment of its Constitution to the Second Session of the General
Court, in 1798. In 2 vols. Vol. II, Isaiah Thomas. Worcester, 1799.

Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Dutton and Wentworth.

Vols. X and XIII. Boston, 1828 and 1836.

— Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640 to 1793. Edited by Samuel A,

Bates. Randolph, Mass., 1886.

The Records of the Town of Cambridge (formerly Newtowne), Massa-
chusetts, 1630-1703. Cambridge, 1901.

Watertown Records, prepared for publication by the Historical Society.

Vols. 1^. Watertown, 1894.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. First series, 10 vols.

Boston, 1792-1809. Reprinted, 1806, 1809.

Annual Reports of the Board of Education, together with Annual Reports

of the Secretary of the Board. Boston, 1837-52.

Boston. Rules of the School Committee and Regulations of the Public

Schools, etc. City Documents, Nos. 22, 23, 28, 40. Boston, 1841, '46, '47. 1

Springfield. Reports of the School Committee for 1853-61. Springfield,

1854-62.

Massachusetts Bay. Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts
Bay in New England (1628-86). Edited by N. B. Shurtleff. 5 vols. Boston,
1853-4.

Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts

Bay (169^1780). Vols. I, II. Boston, 1869-1910.

Michigan. System of Public Instruction and Primary School Law. Prepared
by Francis W. Shearman. Lansing, 1852.

Reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1855, '56, '57. Lan-
sing, 1858.

60258°— 22 11 161

162 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

New Hampshire. Annual Reports upon the Common Schools of New Hampshire.

Vols. 1-9, 1847-51. Concord, 1852-6.
Documents and Records Relating to the Province, Town, and State of

New Hampshire (1623-1800). Edited by N. Bouton and others. 31 vols.

Concord, 1867-1907.
Laws of New Hampshire. Edited by Albert S. Batchelor. Vol. 1, Prov-

ince Period. Manchester, N. H., 1904.

The Laws of the State of New Hampshire, Together with the Declaration

of Independence, etc. Portsmouth, printed by the order of the General Court,
John Melcher, 1792.

The Laws of the State of New Hampshire, with the Constitutions, etc.

Exeter, published by authority, C. Norris & Co., 1815.

New Haven. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to
1649. By Charles Hoadley. Hartford, 1857.

New Jersey. Archives of the State of New Jersey. Edited by W. A. White-
head and others. 1st series, documents relating to the colonial history
(1631-1800), 27 vols.

New York. Annual Reports of the Regents of the University of New York.
Albany, 1837-73.

Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Common Schools. Albany,

1830-52.

Columbia University. Charters, Acts, and Official Documents, etc. Com-
piled by John B. Pine. New York, printed for the college, 1895.

Albany Co., N. Y. The Annals of Albany. By Joel Munsell. Albany,

1850-59.

Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the Sessions of the Legisla-
ture, 1797, '98, '99, and 1800, inclusive. Republished by the Secretary of
State, 1885. Vol. IV. Albany, Weed, Parsons & Co., 1887.

Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the 50th Session of the Legis-

lature (1827). Albany, printed by E. Croswell, 1827.
Ohio. Annual Reports of the Secretary of State on the Condition of Common

Schools, 1848. 1851, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56, '57, '58. Columbus, 1849, 1852, '53,

'54, '55, '56, '57, '58, '59.
Cincinnati. Common School Report for Years 1860-62. Cincinnati,

1860-62.
Pennsylvania. Laws of the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania
j (1854). Harrisburg, A. B. Hamilton, 1854.

Reports of the Superintendent of Common Schools. Harrisburg, 1851-55.

Colonial Records (1683-1790). Philadelphia and Harrisburg, published

by the State, 1851-53.
Plymouth. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England (1620-90).

Edited by N. B. Shurtleff and others. 12 vols. Boston, 1855-61.
Vermont. Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Vermont Board of Education.

1858. Burlington, 1858.
, Annual Reports of the Common Schools, 1847, '48, '49, '51. St. Albans,

1857, '58, '59, Montpelier, 1851.

Laws of the State of Vermont to the Close of the Session of the Legisla-

ture in the Year 1816. Vols. I, III, Fay, Davidson & Burt. Rutland, 1817.
Virginia. The Statutes at Large of Virginia, from October Session, 1792. to
December Session, 1806, inclusive. In 3 vols. Vol. Ill by Samuel Shephard.
Richmond, 1836.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED. 163

B. CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL TREATISES.

Ascham, Roger. The Schoolmaster: or a Plain and Perfect Way of Teaching
Children to Understand, Write, and Speak the Latin Tongue. (1591.)
James Upton, A. M. ed. London, 1711.

Ash, John. Sentiments on Education, Collected from the Best Writers. 2 vols.
London, 1777.

Brinsley, John. Ludus Literaris, or The Grammar Schoole; Shewing How To
Proceed from the First Entrance into Learning, etc. (1612.) London,
imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Richard Meighen, 1627.

Carlisle, Nicholas. A Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools
in England and Wales, etc. Vol. I. London, Baldwin, Craddock & Jay, 1818.

Carter, James G. Letters to the Hon. William Prescott on the Schools of New
England, with Remarks on the Principles of Instruction. Boston, 1824.

Comenius, Johann Amos. The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius ; now for
the First Time Englished, etc., by M. W. Keating. London, 1896.

Fordyce, David. Dialogues Concerning Education. 2d ed. London, 1745.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Works of Benjamin Franklin. By Jared Sparks. 10
vols. Boston, 1840.

The Writings of Benjamin Franklin; Collected and Edited, wijth a Life

and Introduction, by Albert H. Smyth. Vol. II, X. New Ylork, London,
1905-7.

Herbart, Johann F. Outlines of Educational Doctrine. Translated by Alexis
F. Lange . . . annotated by Charles DeGarmo. New York, London, 1901.

Hoole, Charles. A New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching School. Reprint.
Introduction and notes by T. Mark. Syracuse, 1912.

Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. (1693.) 6th ed. enl.
London, 1709.

Mulcaster, Richard. (The) Educational Writings of . . . (1532-1611), etc.
James Oliphant, ed. Glasgow, 1903.

Priestley, Joseph. Miscellaneous Observations relating to Education, etc. Lon-
don, 1778.

Seager, F. The Schoole of Vertue, and book of good Nourture for Chyldren,
and Youth to learne theyr dutie by, etc. London, 1557. Reprinted, The
Babees Book, Frederick J. Furnivall, M. A., ed. London, 1868.

Sheridan, Thomas. British Education : or, The Source of the Disorders of
Great Britain, being An Essay towards proving that the Immorality, Ignor-
ance, and false Tastes, are the natural and necessary Consequences of the
present Defective System of Education, etc. London, 1754.

Turnbull, George. Observations upon Liberal Education in all its Branches,
etc. London, 1742.

Walker, William. Some Improvements To the Art of Teaching, Especially in
the First Grounding of a Young Scholar in Grammar-Learning. London,
1730.

Wynne, R. Essays on Education by Milton, Locke, and the Authors of the
Spectator, etc. London, 1761.

C. TEXTBOOKS IN GRAMMAR.*

Alexander, Caleb. A Grammatical System of the English Language : Compre-
hending a Plain and Familiar Scheme of Teaching Young Gentlemen and
Ladies the Art of Writing and Speaking Correctly their Native Tongue.
1792. 5th ed. Boston, 1799.

1 Various other minor texts consulted, named in Appendix B.

164 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

ds

[Anonymous.] The British Grammar, or an Essay in Four Parts, Towar
Speaking and Writing the English Language Grammatically and Inditing
Elegantly. London, 1760. Edition 1762.

[Anonymous.] A Grammar of the English Tongue, with the Arts of Log
Rhetoric, Poetry, etc., giving the Grounds and Reasons of Grammar i]
General. London, published by John Brightland for the use of schools
Great Britain and Ireland, 1706. 7th ed., 1746.

Brown, Goold. The Institutes of English Grammar, Methodically Arranged
with Examples for Parsing, Questions for Examination, False Syntax for
Correction, Exercises for Writing, etc. New York, 1823. Stereotype ed.,
New York, 1833.

Grammar of English Grammars. New York, 1850.

The First Lines of English Grammar; Being a Brief Abstract of the

Author's Larger Work. Designed for Young Learners. New York, 1826.

Bullion, Peter. The Principles of English Grammar, Comprising the Sub-
stance of the Most Approved English Grammars Extant, with Copious Exer-
cises in Parsing and Syntax. New York, 1834. 5th ed., New York, 1843.

Dilworth, Thomas. A New Guide to the English Tongue, Containing a Short
but Comprehensive Grammar of the English Tongue. London, 1740. Bos-
ton, printed for J. Perkins, 1771.

Fisher, A. A Practical New Grammar, with Exercises of Bad English, or, an
Easy Guide to Speaking and Writing the English Language Properly and
Correctly. London, 1752. 10th ed., 1765.

Greene, Samuel S. A Treatise on the Structure of the English Language, or the
Analysis and Classification of Sentences and their Component Parts. Bos-
ton, 1847. Edition, H. Cooperthwaite & Co., Philadelphia, 1857.

Greenwood, James. An Essay Towards a Practical English Grammar, etc.
London, 1706. 2d ed., 1722.

Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language ... To which are
Prefixed a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. London,
1775.

Jonson, Ben. The English Grammar, made by Ben Jonson for the Benefit of all
Strangers out of his Observation of the English Language now Spoken and
in Use. London, 1640. Reprint, Alice V. Waite, ed., New York, 1909.

Kirkham, Samuel. English Grammar in Familiar Lectures: Embracing a New
and Systematic Order of Parsing, a New System of Punctuation, Exercises
in False Syntax, etc. New York, 1823. 45th ed., Rochester, N. Y., 1839.

Lily, William. A Short Introduction of Grammar. London, 1542. 1726 ed.,
John Ward, ed. London, 1726.

Lowth, Robert. A Short Introduction to English Grammar, with Critical Notes.
London, 1762.

Murray, Lindley. English Grammar Adapted to the Different Classes of Learn-
ers. London, 1795. From 28th English ed., Utica, N. Y., 1822.

Priestley, Joseph. The Rudiments of English Grammar. 3d ed., London, 1772.

Smith, Roswell C. English Grammar on the Productiv^System : a Method of
Instruction Recently Adopted in Germany and Switzerland. Boston, 1832.
Stereotyped ed., Philadelphia, 1838.

Staniford, Daniel. A Short but Comprehensive Grammar, Rendered Simple and
Easy by Familiar Questions and Answers, Adapted to the Capacity of
Youth. Boston, 1797.

Webster, Noah. A Grammatical Institute of the English Language; compris-
ing an Easy, Concise and Systematic Method of Education. Part 2. Con-
taining a Plain and Comprehensive Grammar, Grounded on the True Prin-

LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED. 165

ciples and Idioms of the Language. Hartford, 1784. 6th Connecticut ed.,
Hartford, 1800.

Wells, William H. A Grammar of the English Language, for the Use of Schools.

Andover, 1816. Cleveland, Ohio, ed., 1852.
Wharton, J. A New English-Grammar: Containing all Rules and Directions

Necessary to be Known for the Judicious Reading, Right Speaking and

Writing of Letters, Syllables, and Words in the English Tongue, etc.

London, 1655.

D. MISCELLANEOUS.

American Annals of Education and Instruction. Ed. by William C. Wood-
bridge. Vols. I-VIII. Boston, 1831-7.

American Journal of Education. Ed. by Henry Barnard. Vols. 4, 5, 13, 14, 15,
24, 27. Hartford, Conn., 1857, '58, '63, '64, '65, '73, '77.

American Journal of Education. Ed. by Horace Mann. Vols. I-V. Boston,
1826-30. ,

An Account of the Charity Schools Lately Erected in Great Britain and Ireland
with the Benefactions Thereto, etc. 9th ed. (Joseph Downing), London,
1710.

Common School Journal. Ed. by Horace Mann. Vols. 1-10; by William B.
Fowle, Vols. 11 to 14, inclusive. Boston, 1839-52.

Coon, Charles L. North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840. A Docu-
mentary History. Raleigh, 1915.

Evans, Charles. American Bibliography, a Chronological Dictionary of all the
Books, Pamphlets, and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States
of America, etc., 1639-1820. 8 vols., 1639-1792. Chicago, printed privately
by the author, 1903-14.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography, 1771. Nathaniel Griffin, ed. Chicago,
1915.

Glimpses of Colonial Society and the Life at Princeton College, 1766-1773. By
one of the class of 1763 (William Patterson). Ed. by W. J. Mills. Phila-
delphia and London, 1903.

Jones, Hugh. The Present State of Virginia. London, 1724. New York,
reprinted for J. Sabin, 1865.

Parsons, Mrs. Elsie W. (Clews). Educational Legislation and Administration
of the Colonial Governments. New York, 1899.

Winterbotham, Rev. W. American Schools and Education, Contemporaneous
Account, 1796. Reprinted from Barnard's Am. J. of Ed., 24 (1873), 136-57.

II. SECONDARY AUTHORITIES.

A. HISTORIES OF EDUCATION, BIOGRAPHIES OF EDUCATORS, HISTORIES OF

INSTITUTIONS.

Anderson, Lewis F. History of the Common School Education. New York,

1909.
Barnard, Henry. American Educational Biography. Memoirs of Teachers,

Educators, etc. First published in 1859 ; Bardeen reprint, Syracuse, N. Y.,

1874.
Battle, Kemp P. History of the University of North Carolina. 2 vols. Raleigh,

N. C, 1907.
Beardsley, E. Edwards. Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, D. D.

New York, 1874.

166 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.

Birchenough, Charles. History of Elementary Education in England an

Wales from 1800 to the Present Day. London, 1914.
Boese, Thomas. Public Education in the City of New York ; its History, Cor

dition, and Statistics. New York, 1869.
Boone, Richard C. Education in the United States, its History from th

Earliest Settlements. New York, 1899.
Bronson, Walter C. The History of Brown University, 1764-1914. The Un

versity, Providence, R. I., 1914.
Brown, Elmer E. The Making of Our Middle Schools, etc. New York (1903)

2d ed., London and Bombay, 1905.
Bush, George C. A History of Education in the United States. New York am

London, 1898.
Dexter, Edwin C. A History of Education in the United States. New Yor

and London, 1904.

Dulles, Charles W. The Charity School of 1740; the Foundation of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. From the University of Pennsylvania Medical

Bulletin, Philadelphia, 1904.
Hazlitt, W. Carew. Schools, School Books, and Schoolmasters. London, 1888.
Heathwole, Cornelius J. A History of Education in Virginia. New York, 1916.
Hinsdale, Burke A. Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the

United States. New York, 1898.
Hodgson, Geraldine T. Rationalist English Educators. London [etc.], Society

for Promoting Christian Knowledge. New York, 1912.
Hough, Franklin B. Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the

State of New York, 1784-1884. New York, 1885.
Jenks, Henry F. Catalogue and Historical Sketch of the Boston Public Latin

School. Boston, 1886.
Kemp, William W. The Support of Schools in Colonial New York by the Society

for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. New York, 1913.
Laurie, Simon S. John Amos Comenius, Bishop of the Moravians ; his Life and

Educational Works. Boston, 1885.
Leach, Arthur F. English Schools at the Reformation, 1516-8. Westminster,

1896.
Littlefield, George E. Early Schools and School Books of New England. Bos-
ton, printed by the Club of Odd Volumes, 1914.
McCrady, Edward. Education in South Carolina Prior to and During the

Revolution. Historical Society of South Carolina, Charleston. S. C, 1883.
Maclean, John. History of the College of New Jersey, from its Origin in 1746

to the Commencement of 1854. 2 vols. 1877.
Mark, Harry. An Outline of the History of Educational Theories in England.

Syracuse, N. Y., 1899.
Martin, George H. The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System.

New York, N. Y., 1894.
Meriwether, Colyer. Our Colonial Curriculum. Washington, D. C, Capital

Publishing Co., 1907.
Monroe, Will S. Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform. London,

1900.
Montgomery, Thomas H. A History of the University of Pennsylvania from its

Foundation to A. D. 1770. Philadelphia, 1900.
Murray, David. History of Education in New Jersey. Washington, D. C,

Government Printing Office, 1899.
Powell, Lyman P. The History of Education in Delaware. Washington, D. C,

Government Printing Office, 1893.
Quick, Robert H. Essays on Educational Reformers, etc. Cincinnati, 1885.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR TAUGHT AFTER LATIN METHODS. 167

Quincy, Josiah. History of Harvard University. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1840.
Rice, J. M. The Public School System of the United States. New York, 1893.
Slafter, Carlos. A Record of Education. The Schools and Teachers of Dedham,

Massachusetts, 1644-1904. Dedham, Mass., privately printed, Dedham

Transcript Press, 1905.
Small, Walter H. Early New England Schools. Ed. by W. H. Eddy. Boston

& London, 1914.
Steiner, Bernard G. History of Education in Maryland. Washington, D. C,

Government Printing Office, 1894.
Swett, John. American Public Schools, History and Pedagogics. New York,

1900.
Thorp, Francis N. Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania.

Washington. D. C, Government Printing Office, 1893.
Tolman, William H. History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. Washing-
ton, D. C, Government Printing Office, 1894.
Updegraff, Harlan. The Origin of the Moving School in Massachusetts. New

York, 1907.
Watson, Foster. The Beginnings of the Teaching of Modern Subjects in Eng-
land. London, 1909.
The English Grammar Schools to 1660; their Curriculum and Practice.

Cambridge, England, 1908.
Wickersham, James P. A History of Education in Pennsylvania. Lancaster,

1886.
Wood, George B. The History of the University of Pennsylvania, from its

Origin to the Year 1827. In Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society,

3, 169-280. Philadelphia, 1834.

B. STATE AND LOCAL HISTORIES.

At water, Edward E. History of the Colony of New Haven to its Absorption into

Connecticut. New York, 1881.
Bailey, S. L. Historical Sketches of Andover, Massachusetts. Boston, 1880.
Bicknell, Thomas W. A History of Barrington, Rhode Island. Providence,

1898.
Corey, Deloraine P. The History of Maiden, Massachusetts, 1633-1785. Mai-
den, published by the Author, 1899.
Currier, John J. History of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1625-1902. Boston, 1902.
Felt, Joseph B. Annals of Salem. 2 vols., 2d ed. Boston, 1845.
Judd, Sylvester. History of Hadley, Massachusetts. Northampton, 1863.
Love, William D. The Colonial History of Hartford, Gathered from the

Original Records, etc. Hartford, 1914.
Mann, H. Historical Annals of Dedham, from its Settlement, 1635, to 1847.

Dedham, 1847.
Nash, Gilbert. Historical Sketch of the Town of Weymouth, Massachusetts,

from 1622 to 1884, etc. Boston, 1885.
Orcutt, William D. Good Old Dorchester, A Narrative History of the Town,

1630-1893. Cambridge, 1893.
Proud, Robert. The History of Pennsylvania, in North America, from the

Original Institution and Settlement, etc., Written Principally between the

Years 1776-1780. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1797.
Temple, J. H., and Sheldon, George. A History of the Town of Northfield,

Massachusetts, for 150 years, etc. Albany, N. Y., 1875.
Winthrop, John. The History of New England from 1630 to 1649. New ed. by

James Savage. 2 vols. Boston, 1853.

168 ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BEFORE 1850.
C. MONOGRAPHS AND ARTICLES.

Barbour, F. A. The Teaching of English Grammar; History and Method.
Boston, 1902.

Barnard, Henry. First Public Schools of New England. American Journal
of Education, I ; 27, 39, 97, 105, 121.

History of the Common Schools of Connecticut. American Journal of

Education, IV; 657-70; and V; 114-^54.

Broome, G. C. A Historical and Critical Discussion of College Admission
Requirements. New York, 1903. (Columbia University Contributions, V,
Nos. 3-4.)

Bush, George C. First Common Schools in New England. Washington, D. C,
Government Printing Office, 1898. (U. S. Bureau of Education. Circular of
Information No. 3.)

Fitzpatrick, Edward A. The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clin-
ton. New York, 1911.

Germantown Academy; Centennial Anniversary of the Foundation. Phila-
delphia, 1860. (A pamphlet.)

Inglis, Alexander J. The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts. New
York, 1911.

Jernegan, Marcus W. The Beginnings of Public Education in New England.
School Review, XXIII; 319-30, 361-80.

Snow, Louis F. The College Curriculum in the United States. New York, 1907.

Updegraff, Harlan. The Origin of the Moving School in Massachusetts. New
York, 1907.

D. MISCELLANEOUS.

Bigelow, John. The Life of Benjamin Franklin, etc. 3d ed. 3 vols. Phila-
delphia, 1893.

Dexter, F. B. Influences of the English Universities in the Development of
New England. In Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 1879-80.

Eggleston, Edward. The Transit of Civilization from England to America in
The Seventeenth Century. New York, 1901.

Fithian, Philip V. Journal and letters, 1767-1774; Student at Princeton Col-
lege, 1770-72, etc. Ed. by John R. Williams, Princeton, for the University
Library, 1900.

Ford, Paul L. The New England Primer ; a History of its Origin and Develop-
ment, etc. New York, 1897.

Hinsdale, B. A. Foreign Influence on Education in the United States. In
Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897.

Huey, Edmund B. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, etc. New York,
1908.

Tuer, Andrew W. History of the Horn-Book. London, The Leadenhall Press,
1907.

Monroe, Paul, ed. A Cyclopedia of Education. Vols. 1-5. New York, 1911.

Reeder, Rudolph R. The Historical Development of School Readers and
Method in Teaching Reading. New York, 1900.

INDEX.

Academy and Charity School of Philadelphia,
history, 38, 43-49; influence, 49-55.

Alcott, William A., on study of grammar, 148.

Barnard, Henry, and reform in study of grammar,
142-143, 150-151.

Bearing of grammar on modern problems, 8-10.

Beginnings of grammar, 8.

Bible, emphasis on instruction, New England
colonies, 16-17.

Bibliography, 155-168.

Bingham, Caleb, school in Boston, 78-79; textbook,
79, 81.

Blackboard, use, 149.

Boston, Mass., introduction of grammar in schools,
25.

Brinsley, John, on memorizing rules, 113, 117; pars-
ing, 120; study of Latin, 109.

Brosius, Rev. Francis, school in Boston, 149.

Brown, Goold, on grammar as an art, 107, 111, 114;
memorizing rules, 138-139; parsing, 121; text-
books, 84.

Brown University, See Rhode Island College.

Buchanan, James, on study of grammar, 114.

Byerley, Thomas, methods of teaching grammar,
129-130.

Carew, Richard, on teaching English, 59.

Charity schools, Great Britain and Ireland, curricu-
lum, 14.

Clajon, William, and instruction in English gram-
mar at Annapolis, Md., 30.

Colburn, Warren, series of readers, 140-141.

Colet, on study of Latin, 107-109, 111.

College of New Jersey. See Princeton College.

Colleges. American, early instruction in grammar,
36-42. Seealso Higher education.

Colonial schools, reading and writing stressed, 17-18.

Colonies, educational treatises, 55-56.

Columbia College, early instructions grammar,37.
See also King's College.

Connecticut; legislation regarding grammar ,74.

Constructive work, 149-153.

Coote, Edmund, vernacular textbook for "pettie"
schools, 12-13.

Curriculum, Franklin's academy, 45-46; influence,
adding grammar to, 43-69.

Dame schools, New England, 18-19.

Educational theories supporting grammar in
America up to 1775, 55-69.

Educational treatises in the colonies, 55-56.

England, character of vernacular instruction (1596-
1622), 12-15.

English grammar, before 1775, 21-33; before 1784,
33-36; before 1800, chronological catalogue, 155-
157; early appearance in America, 21-42; inten-
sive study, 6-8.

"English grammar school, ' earliest uses of the
name, 24-25.

English schools, significance of rise, 76-77.
English tongue, standardizing and preserving, 61-

66.
English vernacular, early instruction* 11-12.
False syntax, 122-124.
Formalism in grammar, protest, 143.
Fowle, William B., on influence of Webster and

Bingham, 79; study of EngUsh grammar, 131;

study of grammar, 147, 149.
Franklin, Benjamin, on instruction in EngUsh, 65;

influence of his school, 49-55; scheme for English

academy in Philadelphia, 49-55.
Franklin and Turnbull, comparison of English

programs, 158-159.
Georgia, instruction in grammar, 31-32.
Germantown Union School. Pa., instruction in

grammar, 28.
Gough, William, school in South Carolina con-
sidered doubtful, 31.
Grammar, definitions, 105-107. See also EngUsh

grammar.
Greenwood, James, on study of EngUsh grammar,

112.
Griffith, John, announcement of instruction in

EngUsh grammar, 25.
Harvard CoUege, early instruction in grammar,

37-38.
High schools, status of grammar in 1867, 101.
Higher education for the masses in 1650 and in 1750,

66-67. See also CoUeges.
Hoole, Charles, description of vernacular instruc-
tion at the end of the sixteenth century, 13-14.
Hughes, Hugh, methods of teaching grammar,

128-129.
Inductive approach, agents and agencies, 140-143.
Inductive movement, appUed to grammar, chief

features, 144-153.
Instruction, absence of grammatical, in EngUsh, 24;

revolt against meaningless, 144-146; visual and

oral, 146-149.
Johnson, WilUam, EngUsh grammar school, in

Charleston, S. C, 32, 64.
Jones, Hugh, first American author of a textbook

in English grammar, 33, 36-37.
King's CoUege, first advertisement of English in-
struction, 64; instruction in grammar, 36-37. See

also Columbia College.
Kirkham, Samuel, popularity of textbooks, 134-

135; textbooks, 84, 87.
Lancastrian system, 114-115.
Latin, burden of learning, 56-58; revolt against,

headed by John Locke, 11.
Latin and rote periods, summary of methods,

130-131.
Latin grammar, methods of study in seventeenth

century, 107-111; traditional methods of teaching

transferred to EngUsh grammar, 103-131.

169

170

INDEX.

Latin methods^ carried directly to English gram-
mar, 111-120.

Legislative recognition of grammar, 70-77.

List of authorities cited, 161-168.

Locke, John, and revolt against the Latin curricu-
lum, 11-12.

Lowth, Robert, on false syntax, 123; learning gram-
mar, 113-114.

Mann, Horace, and reform in study of grammar,
142-145, 147.

Maryland, instruction in grammar, 30, 53.

Massachusetts, education in Colonial period, 15-17;
instruction in grammar, 71-73; legislation regard-
ing grammar, 85-87; textbooks in grammar, 85-87.

May, Samuel J., on early use of blackboards, 149.

Memorization, rules, 113-116; devices to aid, 116-118.

Methods before 1850, gradual changes, 132-154.

Methods used in grammar schools, New York, 128-
130.

Michigan, instruction in grammar, 98-99.

Milton, John, on teaching English, 59.

Murray, Lindley, on false syntax, 124; memorizing
rules, 117; textbooks, 79-80, 83-84.

New England, early education, 15-17; legislation
regarding grammar, 70-73; rapid rise of grammar
after Revolution, 70-76; teaching grammar before
1775, 23-25.

New England Primer, first book printed, 19.

New Hampshire, instruction in grammar, 88, 97-98;
legislation regarding grammar, 74-75.

New Jersey, instruction in grammar, 26-28, 94-95.

New York, first legislation to definitely speak of
grammar, 73-74; grammar as part of curriculum
of academies, 82-85; instruction in grammar, 25-
26, 95-96; methods of teaching grammar, 128-130
textbooks in grammar, 83-85.

North Carolina, instruction in grammar, 90-92.

Ohio, instruction in grammar, 96-97, 88-90.

Oratory, instruction, 61-63, 65.

Parsing, 120-122. See also False syntax.

Pennsylvania, instruction in grammar, 29-30, 92-93;
Pestalozzianism, and Roswell C. Smith, 135-138;
criticisms by Goold Brown, 137-138.

" Pettie schools," vernacular textbook, 12-13.

Philadelphia Academy. See Academy and Charity
School of Philadelphia.

Princeton College, instruction in grammar, 38-39.

Priestly, Joseph, argument for simplicity in teach-
ing grammar, 119; false syntax, 124.

Purposes of the study, 5-6.

Queen's College, instruction in grammar, 40.

Rand, Asa, on memorizing rules, 114.

Rapid rise of English grammar after 1775, 70-102.

Ray, James, on study of grammar, 148.

Revolution, rapid rise of grammar after, 70.

Rhode Island College, instruction in grammar,
39-40.

Rate periods and Latin, summary of methods,
130-131.

Rules of grammar. See Memorization.

Rutgers College. See Queen's College.

Schoolmasters teaching English grammar before
1775, 21-33.

Schools and schoolmasters, teaching grammar be-
fore 1775, 21-33.

Seventeenth century, education in the classics, 11.

Sheridan, Thomas, on revival of the art of speaking,
etc., 61-63.

Simplifying terms, 118-119.

Smith, Provost, on English instruction, 65.

Smith, Roswell C, textbook, 84," 87, 135.

See also Pestalozzianism.

Somerset Academy, Maryland, 53.

South Carolina, first school teaching the mother
tongue "grammatically," 43.

Standardizing and preserving the English tongue,
61-66.

Status of grammar (1850-1870), 92-102.

Steele, Richard, on instruction in grammar, 58.

Textbooks, flood after 1784, 77-82; in Colonies,
68-69; nature of dominating (1823-1850), 134-140;
representative States (1800-1850), 82-92.

See also Bibliography.

Turnbull and Franklin, comparison of English
programs, 158-159.

University of North Carolina, early instruction in
grammar, 40-41.

University of the State of New York, regents' re-
port on English grammar, 73.

Vermont, instruction in grammar, 87-88; legislation
regarding grammar, 73.

Vernacular instruction, character in America (1620-
1720), 17-20; character in England, (1596-1622),
12-15; reasons for early emphasis in America,
15-17.

Vernacular school, first important, 8.

Virginia, instruction in grammar, 31-32.

Visual and oral instruction, 146-149.

Ward, Joseph, on absence of grammatical instruc-
tion in English, 24; value of English to masses, 59.

Ward, William, on memorizing rules, 115.

Wassamacaw, S. C, first school teaching mother
tongue "grammatically," 43.

Waterland, William, teacher of grammar in South
Carolina, 31.

Watson, William, on school in Charleston, S. C, 60.

Webster, Noah, rhetorical school in Hartford, Conn.,
77; textbooks, 77-78.

Wells, William H., on oral instruction in grammar,
147-148.

Woodbridge, William C, on study of grammar,
142-143.

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